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Comment by sclangdon | Hacker News Reader

I had similar thoughts about the meaning of it all. But I didn't question life per se, I questioned the rat race. "Why am I working all day?", "Why do I spend the best parts of the day in an office?", "Why can't I still afford a house even though I make good money?" and questions of that nature.

I wasn't as unhappy as you sound, I just didn't see the purpose of it (working) anymore.

And so I decided not to do it anymore. Instead, I've decided to buy a small amount of land, live sustainibly, start a market garden, and spend much more time with my family and integrate with nature more.

Life isn't bad, but it sounds like you're stuck in a rut. Perhaps you just need to find your passion, and make a plan to transition from where you are now, to where you want to be?

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I'd like to add onto this point.

Started cheffing at 17, always wanted to code, self taught enough to be qualified as a chef and get a job programming for a fairly large company by 22.

It sucked. As you said, waiting for assignments, no decision making and just another cog in a very large wheel.

Went back to cheffing, I've now travelled all over Australia, lived in Japan for 6 years, met a woman who became my wife and is currently pregnant with our first.

I may work 70+ hours some weeks, but it's fun. I have ran 3 restaurant successfully as an executive chef, now I'm helping a family member with a take away and loving it(haute cuisine food from a take away? Can't plate as I useto but damn it tastes good at an affordable price).

Long story short I'm enjoying life now, seems you need to broaden your horizons work wise more than how life just is.

P.s when I get the urge, I still have a massive side project I work on, so that training in coding, definitely not wasted :-)

I hope you find a better fit for you mate.

Makes me think of observations I've made about cooking in better restaurants. It doesn't pay well and the work requires skill/experience and long hours, and demand (at least here) is extremely high.

High demand, high skill... why doesn't it pay better? The only answer is that there must be some other benefits to the field. They have to pay people better to work in an office because office work sucks a lot more.

I certainly don't make as much doing this as I would coding.

The best I've gotten so far was 2k Au a week while running three restaurants as an exec.

Hospitality in general isn't the best industry for making money, although I am planning on my own place in a few years :-)

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