"I’m 28, I just quit my tech job, and I never want another job again"

[ksen]

http://www.vox.com/2015/6/30/8852017/quit-my-job

June 12, 2015, was my last day as a programmer for a Bay Area tech company. I gave them four years of my life, making their website faster and making fellow developers' jobs easier. I left knowing I don't want to get another job in tech. I don't want another job at all.

A pretty interesting article from a person that decided enough was enough.

I especially liked this part:

There are undertones in American culture saying that a 9-to-5 job is an honorable goal unto itself, that we should balance "pays well" with "is tolerable" and stick with it until we're 65.

And I agree with the author's response to the above:

Fuck that.

 

[Nice Squirrel]

Goody for him. Now get back to work. *whipcrack*

 

[ksen]

Fuck that, I'm going to lunch.

 

[fromderinside]

Fuck that, I'm going to lunch.

Sorry. Lunch counter closed since no employee to prepare, serve, food./allformeFU

 

[credoconsolans]

I said the same thing at 19. About the never wanting to work again, part.

This guy...well, that will last until he runs out of money or wants a date, whichever comes first.

Oh, wait, he does have a partner who he's sponging off of right now...until he gets a job.

LOL

 

[Nice Squirrel]

I said the same thing at 19. About the never wanting to work again, part.

This guy...well, that will last until he runs out of money or wants a date, whichever comes first.

Oh, wait, he does have a partner who he's sponging off of right now...until he gets a job.

LOL

Wait, he's a deadbeat, my sisters will be all over that.

 

[KeepTalking]

I said the same thing at 19. About the never wanting to work again, part.

Yeah, I've been saying it every day for the last 25 years or so. Unfortunately, the bills don't just pay themselves, and even as my income increases year after year, some years more than others, retirement still always seems to be at least 20 years away.

 

[ksen]

I said the same thing at 19. About the never wanting to work again, part.

This guy...well, that will last until he runs out of money or wants a date, whichever comes first.

Oh, wait, he does have a partner who he's sponging off of right now...until he gets a job.

LOL

Wait, he's a deadbeat, my sisters will be all over that.

Are your sisters cute? I'm asking for science.

 

[dismal]

It sounds great at first but my understanding is that if you stop going to work they usually stop paying you.

 

[Harry Bosch]

Fuck that, I'm going to lunch.

I want to quit working to start a band! That would be rad!

 

[prideandfall]

jesus, that article should be called First World White People Problems: How I Learned to Embrace my WAAAAHHHH.

someone should go ahead and drop that fuck-knuckle into a state with a stagnating non-tech job economy, strip him of any marketable job skill, and let him redo his 20s amassing debt and pregnancy scares, then him rewrite the article from the perspective of being 33 and working as a cashier at a dry cleaner for 9 bucks an hour and talk about just casually quitting.

what an utter personification of the ridiculously self absorbed stupidity of upper class america.

 

[ksen]

Fuck that, I'm going to lunch.

I want to quit working to start a band! That would be rad!

I made myself a salami sandwich.

It was delicious.

 

[Nice Squirrel]

Wait, he's a deadbeat, my sisters will be all over that.

Are your sisters cute? I'm asking for science.

No, and neither are their deadbeat husbands. Mama always said, if you want to find work you gotta go look for it.

 

[Jayjay]

I don't want to have a job either. But I like to have a maintain my meager quality of life more than I hate my job. I totally respect the author of the article, and he's absolutely right... there are a lucky few who get paid doing what they love. The rest of us will have to choose a compromise between our dreams and security or comfort or in some cases plain survival.

Fuck the dreams. I'm going to muddle through my 9-5 job for the next 30 years and die a miserable human being, but at least I'll have a nice car in the meantime.

 

[rousseau]

People are really dumb about work these days, as if it's just some thing that's a consequence of an evil capitalist society and not a fundamental part of being alive.

 

[ksen]

The rest of us will have to choose a compromise between our dreams and security or comfort or in some cases plain survival.

That's the author's main point I believe: spending your the majority of your life working for someone that doesn't actually value you as a person is not some noble calling.

Yeah, it's the reality we have to deal with but that shouldn't be the case in a nearly post scarcity world.

 

[Kharakov]

I said the same thing at 19. About the never wanting to work again, part.

This guy...well, that will last until he runs out of money or wants a date, whichever comes first.

Oh, wait, he does have a partner who he's sponging off of right now...until he gets a job.

LOL

Wait, he's a deadbeat, my sisters will be all over that.

I'm a deadbeat! Are your sisters hot?

 

[krypton iodine sulfur]

jesus, that article should be called First World White People Problems: How I Learned to Embrace my WAAAAHHHH.

So his position is wrong because other people have it worse, despite the fact that his position was in no way contingent on having suffered worse than others?

 

[Axulus]

The rest of us will have to choose a compromise between our dreams and security or comfort or in some cases plain survival.

That's the author's main point I believe: spending your the majority of your life working for someone that doesn't actually value you as a person is not some noble calling.

Yeah, it's the reality we have to deal with but that shouldn't be the case in a nearly post scarcity world.

How does he go from "this job/company sucks" to all tech jobs suck?

Go try a smaller, lower pay non start-up company that has trouble attracting that kind of talent where his expertise will be highly valued.

Programmers have a 1.3% unemployment rate, there are tons of options out there.

 

[rousseau]

The rest of us will have to choose a compromise between our dreams and security or comfort or in some cases plain survival.

That's the author's main point I believe: spending your the majority of your life working for someone that doesn't actually value you as a person is not some noble calling.

But where is it in the contract of the universe that making a living is supposed to be endlessly fulfilling? Work is by definition something that you're obliged to do, and in return you spend the other half of your life hopefully in comfort doing things you enjoy in your spare time. Life is usually a balance between positives and negatives in most contexts.

Go back far enough and economies were less capitalistic, but the trade-off was that they were also far less secure. Do you want to trade the 9-5 grind for the potential of 4 straight years of famine in your life-time? There are a lot of things that are common to a modern, privileged life that we take completely for granted, that people of ages ago would dream of. That's mostly due to the giant machine we've created which by consequence causes us to be cogs.

Still, it's a philosophical choice and if you crave a different life you crave a different life. Personally, I'll take a little inconvenience for a ton of life security.

Yeah, it's the reality we have to deal with but that shouldn't be the case in a nearly post scarcity world.

Clearly it should be, because that is the case. I get your point, but we're not there yet, and won't be for a long time.