Why You Should Never Get A Job | Hacker News Reader

Why You Should Never Get A Job

stevepavlina.com

23 pointssmallegan24 comments

Thank goodness some dumb-ass got a job at the web-hosting company where his blog resides. And thanks be to g-d someone got a job building the computer upon which he typed it. I am pleased that some poor fool is in servitude to a farm so he could gain strength from the nourishment they provide to write this prescient piece. I could go on, but I have to go vomit now.

I view having a job as outsourcing all of the stuff I don't want to care about to my employers.

They find things to do that will raise money, they work out a (reasonably good) way to use my time in order to make a profit, they manage payroll, they organise a pension, they sort out private healthcare (not that I need it, as I've outsourced most of my healthcare to my government through the marvel of the NHS), and they organise project management for me.

Basically, I've outsourced all of the bits that are just too much of a pain to deal with, and I'm happy to do so.

I'm also happy that I can stop thinking about work when I clock out, and go spend my evenings thinking about something else. Because my work is not my life, and I do not want it to be.

> Many employees believe getting a job is the safest and most secure way to support themselves. Morons. Social conditioning is amazing. It’s so good it can even make people believe the exact opposite of the truth.

Is this guy trying to start a cult?

Read a bunch of his other stuff. It's not a crazy question to ask.

His blog has gone seriously downhill in recent years. It went from serious personal development to new-age psychobabble.

This article is from 2006, when was his blog better?

You know, I'll bet it's sheer coincidence that this guy also happens to have a course on how to start your own business that he presumably makes money off of.

He doesn't. (at least AFAIK)

Steve has some excellent articles on time management and I have been following his writing for some time now. Though some of his views are outside of my comfort zone, I have matured enough to not be judgmental across the board just because some of his ideas are "kooky" by my standard. Once in a while I will go back to one of his time management articles and every-time I read them, it perks me up real fast.

The problem with his ideas isn't that they're 'kooky.' The most immediate problem I can see is that he doesn't share your maturity at all. He spends most of this article telling us we're 'morons' and 'stupid' and 'dummies' and so on and so on. He's exceedingly judgmental. That alone is a sign that he's not a person of understanding or perception.

It's fine to be open-minded. I sure am. That doesn't prevent this from being an essay that's not only false but openly hostile and derisive in the interest of making the author a buck.

I don't mind kookiness. I like kookiness. What I don't like is having that kookiness presented to me as the only way to go. Either 1) the guy's marketing something or 2) he's that much a zealot. Personally I'd imagine that #1 is the more likely, but if you insist it's number 2 then so be it.

He makes a living from his blog. Of course he is marketing something. He is very proud of it and he mentions it often. He is not hiding it.

Is this your first encounter with his blog?

There's nothing wrong with that. It's just that you should take his advice with a grain of salt. Would you read an article by Intel about why you should upgrade to a faster processor without being skeptical?

Confirmed - the only thing he sells directly is a weekend workshop (http://www.stevepavlina.com/conscious-growth-workshop/), which I've personally been to and recommend.

No one should get a Job! Instead everyone should make money by running blogs where they tell each other not to get a Job! It's genius!

Don’t you think your life would be much easier if you got paid while you were eating, sleeping, and playing with the kids too? Why not get paid 24/7? Get paid whether you work or not. Don’t your plants grow even when you aren’t tending to them? Why not your bank account?[...] Smart people build systems that generate income 24/7, especially passive income. [...] Sure it takes some upfront time and effort to design and implement your own income-generating systems.

I can get exactly the same effect by working for a paycheck and putting my earnings in something that pays interest. What is the approximate net present value of a blog post, how many hours does it take to write, and how does this compare to the dollars/hour available from more traditional work?

...and that's actually the least stupid part of the article.

He conveniently omits mentioning the converse, that most of the time you don't get paid for actually working.

11. You like paying thousands of dollars out of pocket for medical procedures because no one will sell you a health insurance policy at any price.

Is this really the case? I recently purchased insurance for myself in the US and it was less than $200/month. I know families are significantly more, but it couldn't be much more than $1,000 a month could it?

Then you probably have a high deductible plan (as I do), which means if you have medical procedures, they will be thousands out of pocket.

Yep, that I do. Isn't that the point of insurance, to protect you against catastrophic issues?

Is the solution to cut your pay in half by going salaried just for the health insurance?

http://www.acm.org/membership/insurance

"Only in New York!", as they say.

Oh man - a couple of days ago there was this one (Want to be a freelancer? Just punch yourself in the face):

http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2010/09/07/want-to-be-a-free...

Now I don't know what to believe!!

Sigh... Flagged for being inane bullshit.

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