Comment by Cursuviam | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Cursuviam | Hacker News Reader

I've been treating my sabbatical time post graduation as basically summer vacation and honestly, it's been pretty nice. For the past 4 years, I've been researching, in school, or working an internship, so I haven't had a period of time to just be carefree for quite sometime.

I'm very happy right now, but mostly that's because I have a roommate who's unemployed right now, so most of the time I'm not alone in the house and have another person to go on adventures with, as well as have most of my network of college friends and friends still in college around.

On the con side, I've discovered that unstructured working at home descends quickly into distraction and browsing HN too much. I think I might try setting time each day where I go to a coffeeshop and work on coding projects, creative writing, and reading, as the change of scenery might help change my focus modal.

Finally, I recognize that I'm incredibly privileged to be able to do this. Having well-payed internships and a 1%'er family is giving me an opportunity for relaxation and travel that most Americans lack. I'm planning on spending more of my hiatus time volunteering for local causes for what I wish I could say is the goodness of my heart, but is honestly out of guilt and boredom.

> I wish I could say is the goodness of my heart, but is honestly out of guilt and boredom.

It's good to be self-aware enough to recognise this. If you're privileged enough to be able to afford yourself a sabbatical or if you belong to the 1% the best use of your time if you want to give back probably isn't to volunteer for a local cause.

At best it's only a drop in the ocean. At worst it's a self-serving effort to absolve yourself from the 'sin' of privilege.

If you're well off one way to help is Effective Altruism ( https://www.effectivealtruism.org/ ), particularly the pledge to give: https://app.effectivealtruism.org/pledge

That isn't to say that helping others around you by putting in time and effort isn't a worthwhile, rewarding endeavour but one probably shouldn't trick oneself into believing that by doing so one automatically has made a considerable difference.

1%'er you say? You've piqued my interest, mind sharing what your family did to get there?

Can anyone guess how many 1%'ers are on HN?

By household income any couple with google type jobs should be 1%. It is obviously going to be high. What is the interest for there?

Not the asker, but I am always interested in how people come to be wealthy, mostly because it's almost always interesting. Even "worked at google" is interesting because I am personally from a region with no tech unicorns, so it's novel to me.

Not 1%, but it tends to be some element of luck, risk taking, and a lot of hard work. Luck can be such a huge factor. Some times a lot of all three.

I agree but would like to add to that it's true, for the generation that built the principle. Another generation may build out that initial wealth or business. Usually by gen3 or 4 it's gone. At a point unless it's massive wealth (I'm thinking billionaires), there's a clueless generation raised that has no idea how lucky they're the descendants of that initial generation that worked hard and smart during good times, and loses it.

That part is key. It's really a combo of working hard in some way during strong economic times. You can do it in a down market but it's much more difficult. Building generational wealth in the 1950s was much easier than in the 1850s or than it will be in the 2050s, for example. If this isn't true, I'd like to institute a 100% inheritance tax and see how well someone like Meghan McCain or Paris Hilton fares against the rest of us.

My credentials in this.. my family did the exact story described here. Post-WW2 American family that built out an excavating company into a multimillion dollar empire that now includes a chain of banks and other side businesses. My wife's family, same thing but in the textile industry in Latin America. We were both tossed out, because our families are full of psychopaths and horrendous behavior, and we're actually decent folk who won't murder you for a larger inheritance (yes, it's happened in our families). So we never received any assistance, in fact, far less than even a normal, loving family of meager means would give their kids. She's out of her father's will because he blames her for his divorce, a 13 year old daughter at the time of his infidelity, and I'm expecting my brother and aunt to rob my parents blind. We have our own small side businesses but I'm currently hunting for a fulltime job and my wife is a public school teacher. From what I've seen in my life so far, I've never seen money do any good for anyone outside of basic needs. Maybe in the hands of a really wise, smart individual but that's tough to find and a fool is born every minute.

Very interesting story, thanks for sharing your story, that's what makes HN so special.

(You work hard -> get lucky -> take risks) => (fail, succeed); repeat

Working hard part is important and is before. Because if you get lucky first, you will lose it all and likely won't know what areas to take risks in.

My dad was a psychaitrist with a private practice for the longest time.

Sounds like a good time for an impromptu poll?

Everyone on here is a 1%er.

You are probably mostly correct if you are basing that on income relative to the rest of the world. See http://www.globalrichlist.com/

This sounds petty, but thanks for sharing. Quite shocking and eye-opening (although I don't think it's fair to compare income directly like that).

My guess is that most HN'ers are 1%'ers. Those who are not are on the way to get there. The 1% is not really special and doesn't take much money/effort to get there. The 0.1% would be more interesting.

You mean in income? I would love to get there. I am based near Amsterdam and willing to relocate.

Specialties: web dev, ios, coding bootcamps

You might not in the top 1% of devs but probably in the top 1% of your country. Also by being near Amsterdam you are already in the top 1% of the world.

The minimum income to be in the 1% in the United States is $421,926. That seems highly optimistic to say that most HN'ers are in that category or ever will be.

Thanks for sharing @Cursuviam. The unstructured working part is something that I've grappled with for a long time!

If there's a hackerspace near you, it might work better than a coffeeshop as a place to get out of the house and focus on work. Having other geeks around helps me. (As long as they're not working on loud projects that day!)

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