
A Forty Year Career - vinnyglennon
https://lethain.com/forty-year-career/
======
gumby
> There is, however, a simple formula for checking if what you’re doing is
> sustainable: how long does it take on a vacation or weekend until you stop
> feeling anxious, and how anxious do you start feeling when you think about
> returning to work on Monday? If work anxiety is a constant companion, then
> change your situation even if it feels like a step back in the short-term:
> your success depends on sustained impact, not spikes.

Amen!

~~~
skizm
The question is though, if I know what I am doing now is not sustainable
(vacations are meaningless because "pre-monday dread" hits on day 1 no matter
how long I'm taking off for), but I know I'll be out in 9 years vs if I switch
to something "sustainable" it will take 20-30 more years to be out: which do I
pick? Lots of people say try to do something you like (sustainable), but the
rub is I don't like anything that will pay me a livable wage and definitely
not anything that will pay me enough to opt out of the working world at some
point before I'm like 60-70. Also, I used to really like programming. Like a
lot. But now I hate it because I've been forced to program stuff I don't care
about all day, every day for a decade. Why would the next time be any
different if I switched to a career I enjoy now?

~~~
breerly
"I know I'll be out in 9 years."

Guessing you FIRE hard? The rule is that people in this field upgrade their
lifestyle, the exception is FIRE.

~~~
chrisweekly
FIRE?

~~~
thavalai
Financial Independence/Retire Early. One forum:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/](https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/)

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ChuckMcM
I found a lot I could resonate with in that post. My father was in the Air
Force and retired at 40 after 20 years in the service. It seemed to me like he
had a great deal, a retirement check to cover expenses and time to do what he
wanted to do[1]. I wanted to do something like that as well so I resolved to
retire at 40 :-). But what I was missing was the understanding of skills that
would be useful while "retired."

Thinking about that only came later and so I have spent time (and money) on
creating space for lots of exploratory activity. The result is a fairly
complete lab where I can work on things and learn new stuff. The goal being a
space that is fun and engaging to work in until I die[2]. It wasn't what I
expected I would be working toward when I was a kid.

[1] I later learned that money was pretty tight during that period but as a
kid I didn't have any visibility into that.

[2] EDIT: It goes without saying that the lab has a low cost to operate so it
isn't a drain on my funds over time. My wife commented "You're life's work is
to build a fun play room eh?" Which isn't too far from the truth :-)

~~~
zxcvbn4038
Military used to be a plumb deal, growing up I knew families where mom and dad
were both in the National Guard, they did their one weekend a month, and
easily doubled their income. But then the first Iraq war happened, and they
started deploying the National Guard, and suddenly kids were left alone with
both parents in active war zones, and that killed the deal.

~~~
forkerenok
Found this interesting and read up on it a bit.

While war is a terrible thing, I appreciated that the irony wasn't lost on the
National Guardsmen :)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_weekend_a_month,_two_weeks...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_weekend_a_month,_two_weeks_a_year#/media/File:USAR.OneWeekendMyAss.jpg)

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katzgrau
Something I've thought about lately is that money in itself is rarely the end
we really have in mind, despite our focus on it. Money is usually the means to
achieve some end (like financial security).

But more often than not I've realized that while all of my friends are working
toward this idea of financial security, very few of them have defined what
that actually means. What lifestyle do you want to lead and how much money
will that specifically require?

The more I've thought about that, the more I've realized that "financial
security" is actually achievable on a fast timescale if we're willing to focus
on things like budgeting and perhaps relax some constraints (I want to have a
boat, nice car, live in California/NYC, etc).

The things that make me the happiest are having fun (which doesn't require
much) and spending time with my family. I could easily find a way to do that
indefinitely without needing a post-IPO payday.

Now I'm left wondering where I got the crazy idea that I needed one in the
first place.

~~~
brookside
> how much money will that specifically require?

A general rule of many in the "financial independence" is 20x annual expenses
saved for a sustained life without work.

[https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-
si...](https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-simple-math-
behind-early-retirement/)

You sound like a burgeoning F.I.R.E'r. Join us!

~~~
ivalm
Doesnt 20x suggest a 5% withdrawal rate? The oft quoted safe withdrawal is 4%
(25x) with conservative being 3% (33x)...

~~~
brookside
Yes actually, my mistake.

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GnarfGnarf
Been programming since 1965. Still loving every minute of it. If I "retired",
I couldn't think of anything more fun to do than programming. Lucky to be
self-employed. Still learning.

~~~
mcguire
Yeah, but I'm now learning twelve different ways to spell the same damn thing
that junior programmers were doing when I started in 1990. (My career in
actually interesting things flamed out by the mid 90s. Don't work for IBM,
folks.)

~~~
pmikesell
“twelve different ways to spell the same damn thing”

Sorry, what does that mean?

~~~
Redoubts
Same apps but different languages or frameworks.

~~~
mcguire
Mostly the same languages, too, but yes.

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dev_dull
> _”Each day I walk into work, and this slot opens up above my head, and money
> falls out ... the next day I come back, and the slot reopens; more money
> falls out.” This is a surprisingly dark way to view your life’s work._

This is a very realistic and nice way to look at money and finances. You were
paid to do a job. Take what comes out and put it into all of the appropriate
places, then you’ll be ready when you come back to work and — wouldn’t you
know it — nothing comes out.

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purplezooey
It would be nice if managers read books and cared about managing people
effectively. But at nearly every software shop, it's all feel good politics.
The director hires his/her bootlicker manager from the previous gig. Nobody
cares.

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Zeebrommer
How did we get to the point where, after the introduction, the first point of
advice in a guide like this is on avoiding burnout?

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udayrddy
If I were to produce a movie with the tag "based on true incidents", this will
be it - connects almost every one in my network. Thanks a ton for drafting
that.

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draw_down
It’s really unfortunate to see someone take stock of how the world has changed
around us, how it’s no longer possible to get a good job out of high school or
buy a house with any kind of reasonable income, and decide that the way the
workers have adapted to the situation is to become short-sighted fools.

