<story><title>I don&apos;t want to work very hard</title><text>I&apos;ve been a professional developer about ten years now and I don&apos;t want to do it any more. I don&apos;t mean developing, I love coding. I mean work.&lt;p&gt;At every workplace (big to small, profit and non-, startup to hegemony), I&apos;m enthusiastic the first couple weeks but inevitably slide to keeping up appearances with 2-6 hours of actual work per week. Sometimes I like coworkers and projects, sometimes I haven&apos;t. In any case, after a year or so I&apos;m completely frustrated and I leave, to happily live off savings for a few months.                                                                                                      Yeah, the million-dollar question from &apos;Office Space&apos;, find a way to make a career of whatever you&apos;d do if you didn&apos;t have to have a career. It&apos;s possible, but it&apos;s the &quot;career&quot; part I hate. I fail to understand the Protestant Work Ethic. I don&apos;t see any reward in work, just lost time.&lt;p&gt;I&apos;ve studied history some, things are great in America: abundant food, clean water, safe streets, no civil strife, no wars (yes, two occupations), effective medicine, efficient sanitation. It&apos;s not utopia, but there&apos;s no need to bust my ass to &apos;change the world&apos;. The last 50 years are some of the best in history and the good times will likely keep rolling, so why waste them? Any if they&apos;re going to stop, why waste them?&lt;p&gt;Does anyone else feel like this?&lt;p&gt;I&apos;m winding down on the best job I&apos;ve ever had, two years at a small non-profit. It&apos;s taken longer, but I&apos;m just as fed up with working. My plan is to take the money I&apos;ve saved up and start a business. I think I&apos;ve found a niche with a need, and if I can put enough in my pocket that I can buy insured and very low-risk securities to quietly live off a trickle of interest.&lt;p&gt;I&apos;ve already done all the lifehack stuff, so I don&apos;t own or want to own much. I want my time, all of my time, to pursue my hobbies and relationships with friends and family. Consulting doesn&apos;t work, I&apos;d have to charge hundreds per hour to work as little as I&apos;d like, and that&apos;s before the client management/sales overhead. I&apos;ve read 4 Hour Work Week and found the nuggets of good info in the fog of bad writing and hyperbole, but it basically comes down to becoming a manager. And if I was OK pushing pills I&apos;d probably go hang out on the Digital Point forums to pick up some shady deals, but I have too much of a conscience.&lt;p&gt;I know it&apos;s not the PG startup plan, where you work like hell for a few years to make something people want. I just want to make a bankroll and get out. I&apos;m not sure why I&apos;m posting, except that hanging out here and reading about startups has made me think it&apos;s possible to break my frustrating cycle of work, and I&apos;m curious to hear what folks think.</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>BigCanOfTuna</author><text>&quot;The thought of having to expend my creative energy on things that make practical everyday life more refined, with a bleak capital gain as the goal, was unbearable to me. - Einstein&lt;p&gt;I think most people on HN could relate to this quote. Like it or not, as professional developers, we rarely create, but simply refine. It was fun at the start of my career, but now my professional life seems rather unimaginative.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>kqr2</author><text>Great quote.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://books.google.com/books?id=dJMpQagbz_gC&amp;#38;pg=PA31&amp;#38;lpg=PA31&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://books.google.com/books?id=dJMpQagbz_gC&amp;#38;pg=PA31&amp;#3...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;The pre and postamble to that quote is particularly apropos:&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;I was originally supposed to become an engineer but the thought of having to expend...was unbearable to me.  Thinking for its own sake, like music!&lt;/i&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>I don&apos;t want to work very hard</title><text>I&apos;ve been a professional developer about ten years now and I don&apos;t want to do it any more. I don&apos;t mean developing, I love coding. I mean work.&lt;p&gt;At every workplace (big to small, profit and non-, startup to hegemony), I&apos;m enthusiastic the first couple weeks but inevitably slide to keeping up appearances with 2-6 hours of actual work per week. Sometimes I like coworkers and projects, sometimes I haven&apos;t. In any case, after a year or so I&apos;m completely frustrated and I leave, to happily live off savings for a few months.                                                                                                      Yeah, the million-dollar question from &apos;Office Space&apos;, find a way to make a career of whatever you&apos;d do if you didn&apos;t have to have a career. It&apos;s possible, but it&apos;s the &quot;career&quot; part I hate. I fail to understand the Protestant Work Ethic. I don&apos;t see any reward in work, just lost time.&lt;p&gt;I&apos;ve studied history some, things are great in America: abundant food, clean water, safe streets, no civil strife, no wars (yes, two occupations), effective medicine, efficient sanitation. It&apos;s not utopia, but there&apos;s no need to bust my ass to &apos;change the world&apos;. The last 50 years are some of the best in history and the good times will likely keep rolling, so why waste them? Any if they&apos;re going to stop, why waste them?&lt;p&gt;Does anyone else feel like this?&lt;p&gt;I&apos;m winding down on the best job I&apos;ve ever had, two years at a small non-profit. It&apos;s taken longer, but I&apos;m just as fed up with working. My plan is to take the money I&apos;ve saved up and start a business. I think I&apos;ve found a niche with a need, and if I can put enough in my pocket that I can buy insured and very low-risk securities to quietly live off a trickle of interest.&lt;p&gt;I&apos;ve already done all the lifehack stuff, so I don&apos;t own or want to own much. I want my time, all of my time, to pursue my hobbies and relationships with friends and family. Consulting doesn&apos;t work, I&apos;d have to charge hundreds per hour to work as little as I&apos;d like, and that&apos;s before the client management/sales overhead. I&apos;ve read 4 Hour Work Week and found the nuggets of good info in the fog of bad writing and hyperbole, but it basically comes down to becoming a manager. And if I was OK pushing pills I&apos;d probably go hang out on the Digital Point forums to pick up some shady deals, but I have too much of a conscience.&lt;p&gt;I know it&apos;s not the PG startup plan, where you work like hell for a few years to make something people want. I just want to make a bankroll and get out. I&apos;m not sure why I&apos;m posting, except that hanging out here and reading about startups has made me think it&apos;s possible to break my frustrating cycle of work, and I&apos;m curious to hear what folks think.</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>BigCanOfTuna</author><text>&quot;The thought of having to expend my creative energy on things that make practical everyday life more refined, with a bleak capital gain as the goal, was unbearable to me. - Einstein&lt;p&gt;I think most people on HN could relate to this quote. Like it or not, as professional developers, we rarely create, but simply refine. It was fun at the start of my career, but now my professional life seems rather unimaginative.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>nihilocrat</author><text>I think we could learn a lot by interacting with people completely outside of our industry who you &lt;i&gt;know&lt;/i&gt; are not doing the work for the money.</text></comment>