
How I made a Principled decision to quit my Six Figure job | TK's weblog - parth16
http://www.tawheedkader.com/2010/09/how-i-made-a-principled-decision-to-quit-my-six-figure-day-job/
======
JoeAltmaier
He decides between one selfish goal and another, and its a "Principled
Decision"? Maybe he means Rational or Objective.

I've quit six-figure jobs with kids at home and a mortgage. Not because I
wanted to 'find myself', but because the founder was evil. I like to think
that was a principled decision.

------
icode
He explains in great detail how he wants to make somthing that matters,
fulfills him and has an impact on society and then he came up with toutapp, a
product for mass emailing???

~~~
acangiano
I wish this attitude wasn't so pervasive on HN. Who are we to judge if toutapp
fulfills him and meets his standard of something meaningful?

~~~
Jach
I'm totally on board with not judging what gets people their warm-fuzzies, so
long as that's what they're claiming it as. Personally I'd just like to see
far fewer things like this whose purpose ends up being to share cat pictures.
If it's being advertised as game-changing, that claim needs evidence; I'm
pretty skeptical and don't mind judging in that case.

------
kayoone
I have the feeling HN gets literally spammed with posts like this. Seems to be
a nice headline/attention grabber for the HN crowd and most are interesting in
some ways but the "Why i quit my super high paying job to start on my own" get
old.

~~~
pfedor
I generally agree with you, but I felt this one post was much more interesting
than your run of the mill "Why I quit ...". He talks about the decision
process and how he tried to make a decision in a systematic way. I think
that's interesting since making decisions about your own life is often hard
and people mostly don't even attempt a rational approach here, they just
follow whatever the strongest impulse they had. Most authors of the "How I
quit" posts just announce they quit and then add some more or less coherent
after the fact justifications.

I'm not necessarily saying that this author's methodology is great, or that
the goal of making life decisions in such rational, principled manner is even
attainable, but it's still interesting that he tried and what he writes about
it.

~~~
oe
Agreed. The post offered at least one way to think about what you want to do
in life. I for one don't have a clue about what I would most like to do. I do
have a sense that my current job isn't it. But I think it would be foolish to
search for a new job or just quit before knowing what the goal is.

------
toumhi
We need a duplicate story detector around here :-)

It's an old HN submission, was posted at
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1713716> even though there were no
comments at the time, so let's see.

~~~
sp332
RiderOfGiraffes wrote one, but people complained so loudly that he killed it.
<http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=DupDetector>

------
Tawheed
Thanks for the comments guys. I just thought I would clarify one thing. My
values list is sorted by most important to least and then certain values,
including "being adored by society" is circled in red.

Now, that's an important distinction. The ones circled in red mean they are in
conflict with "truth" and therefore is a value I have to work to eliminate
from my life.

I believe that everyone has values such as these, where for one reason or
another, you've learned to value it even at a subconscious level -- the best
you can do is write it down, acknowledge it, and then work to eliminate it.

------
bgurupra
Sometimes I wonder , what if there is no free will ( Its not like we know Free
Will exists for sure yet) - This whole charade of using your drive and
determination or the lack there of to do things may be just the way nature
always wanted it to be.You are just the puppet playing out your part

Edit: Considering the amount of blogs/books that are written around "Self
Help" type of topics which might all be a waste of time if there were nothing
like free will - do you guys think about this at all? If so how do you deal
with it?

~~~
Jach
You seem worried about this free will stuff. I suggest checking out:
<http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Free_will> and, when you're ready, and if you
haven't grasped the full solution,
<http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Free_will_%28solution%29>

------
SatvikBeri
I think the fact that he put "adored by society" as one of his values is
admirable. Most of us do have unconscious values that conflict with what we
think is correct, such as seeking validation, or ingrained views on money
being good/evil that may not match our conscious reasoning. By writing
everything down and acknowledging his values, the author is able to recognize
that what drives him isn't necessarily what he wants to follow (see "conflict
with truth") and is able to work around it.

------
alexatkeplar
Comedy if only for the rampant insecurity oozing out of this guy's every pore

------
bdbrash
Stopped reading the article after seeing that one of his values is "being
adored by society".

~~~
michaelochurch
Yeah, my thought when I saw that was "what a fucking eunuch".

If I had to choose between being known for who I am (which, I assure you,
would lead to controversy rather than admiration) and being adored mindlessly,
I'd choose the former. That's just me, and I'm quite happy having neither
because it keeps my life peaceful.

This guy's parents fucked up if he really believes he can "have it all".
Changing the world and being loved by the world (while living) are mutually
exclusive. Jesus got crucified, Lincoln got shot, and so on and so on...

------
rokhayakebe
Well.... That and raising a quarter of a million dollars.

------
hazelnut
the post is from last year. maybe is interessting what happened in the last 11
months :)

~~~
Arjuna
He has some other postings from 2010, as well as 2011:

<http://www.tawheedkader.com/2010>

<http://www.tawheedkader.com/2011>

------
michaelochurch
I felt ill when I saw "being adored by society" as an explicit goal.

This is why our elders think of our generation as a bunch of self-indulgent
wankbaskets. What kind of soft-batch loser wants to be "adored" by society? If
that's important to you, give up on "making an impact" now and figure out a
way to entertain harmlessly.

If you're worth anything, the best you can hope for, from society at large, is
being passively acknowledged as having been right, and that's after a long,
hard fight. Do you think Lincoln had a cozy life? Or Gandhi? Or FDR? Oh,
you'll be admired by some, and have some close friends, but society at large
has three modes. 1. It doesn't give a fuck about you-- that's what 99.9% of us
get. 2. It hates you-- expect that for a stage if you want to be substantial.
3. After immense pain on your part on account of (2), it acknowledges that you
had a point after all. Usually, (3) is posthumous.

Society doesn't "adore", it limits and retards. And if you're trying to do
something real, it will do what it can to throw obstacles in your way. This
isn't personal, and it shouldn't be given emotional significance because this
sort of rejection will befall anyone who wants to make waves, but people need
to be ready for it. People who think they can "change the world" without the
world fighting back forcefully (and sometimes getting dirty) are deluding
themselves. You really can't have it all; sorry.

~~~
hack_edu
This is the inevitable "truth/reality" our author is achieving to discover.
These aren't easy lessons learned when working in finance or having early
success with your first startup.

