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Comment by codingdave | Hacker News Reader

On the other hand, once you've been doing this for a couple decades, have a family at home, hobbies, and are thinking more about your retirement than advancing a career... a nice, stable job with a good paycheck that you can forget about at the end of the day is also a pretty decent life.

What you have to avoid is the middle ground - if you are advancing your career that is great. If you have a comfortable, satisfying life, that also is great. But if you do not yet have that satisfying life AND you are failing to advance... that is the middle ground to get out of, fast.

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Thank you, I resonate with this. I feel it's a perspective reached after spending those decades in the hustle; you reach a point where it's just a job (that doesn't have to be negative).

The grass is always greener as the saying goes - I'm going to do the same work at company X vs company Y (my specialty), so long as I'm being treated fairly with compensation, tasks, rewards, management, etc. and I believe enough in the core mission of the company, I'm satisfied. Leaving at 5pm to go work on a loved hobby is now more important than some ephemeral career goal. :) I think a key is financial stability though, it takes that hustle to build an investment reserve in the early years.

This is a good way to put it. I work at a well known big tech, and in many ways the money has given me a lot of freedom. I travel with my young family now because I can both afford it and I have enough co workers to easily cover my shift, which was NOT true at my startup.

It’s especially useful having young children, because there is no time for “side hustles” right now. After 5:00 my time and attention goes to my family and my work encourages that.

I love this sentiment.

Probably the best thing about my entire life is that my Dad was free and able to be at every single game, play, recital, or other event in my entire childhood (and for much of my young adulthood, to be honest.) I can't think of a more fulfilling way to spend a life than with the people you love. Work can be fulfilling, but it pales by comparison.

For me, work is 2nd place at best. Loved ones and meaningful moments are my priority.

This makes sense. However, what kind of company culture does this set? If the company is OK with people being not passionate, what kind of signal does that give to the colleagues who want to be eager, passionate, driven?

The signal is that they are more likely to be able to argue for a raise with less competition?

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