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Comment by antoinevg | Hacker News Reader

Fuck that, I've been doing this for 25 years and what I want in order of importance is:

1) Pay me 2) Autonomy

It would be interesting if they performed the same survey, but using real values instead of a subjective, relative scale.

For example, instead of asking: how important salary is, ask how much money they'd like to make; instead of opportunity for professional advancement, ask what role they'd like to eventually have; instead work/life balance, ask about number of vacation days and % work from home, etc.

I'm willing to bet you'll see very different outcomes because senior-level people for whom "salary is not important" probably want like $200k/yr while mid-level people who say it is important might only want $90k.

I am willing to forgo #2 if #1 is high enough.

I'm willing to forgo growth if the money is high enough... but I'll be more strict on my time at the office, allowing me time to do things outside of work.

I'm the opposite. If my living and food expenses are covered, I'll prefer full autonomy over no or minimal autonomy. You can only spend so many years doing things you're asked to do which you don't really want to do before the value added by the extra money is outweighed by the value lost from life in general becoming more depressing and less inspiring.

> If my living and food expenses are covered, I'll prefer full autonomy over no or minimal autonomy.

Where are you living and what will you eat?

You can turn extra money pretty directly into time with actual autonomy (i.e. not working) pretty easily, though.

That's true, but it depends on the income rate, I guess. If I need to work a soul-sucking job for 15 years to be able to spend the rest of my life with mostly full autonomy, I think that trade-off isn't worth it. If it were working a soul-sucking job for 1 or 2 years to get enough to be autonomous for life, then it's probably worth it.

Yes, there is some preferred balance between the two for any one person. But for reference, 15 years to retirement means shaving 25 years of full-time work off the typical career. That seems...pretty appealing.

I am currently working for a company paying me ~185k cash + 1M in options over 4 years. My strike price isn't amazing but I have great autonomy. I like the people I work with and I have no problems. And I have been here for just about a year.

However a company recently lured me in and we had an onsite interview. Still had great chemistry with everyone and enjoyed the prospect of working there. They offered 550k in cash.

I accepted the offer but am still conflicted. My start date is some time away still. Hopefully I will be able to have the same autonomy and sense of fulfillment in this place as well.

Sure, but that’s anecdotal vs statistical data.

I'd probably be willing to chop my salary in half if it meant having true autonomy.

I was surprised that autonomy came in at only 11%, although they only allowed 3 answers...

I'm all for growth myself, but I've always found that people who have some confidence in what they're doing also want autonomy.

It's as if they want to find ways to do this without 1 or 2.

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