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Comment by wantsanagent | Hacker News Reader

Congrats! You have found a comfortable job. Also my condolences, you've found a comfortable job.

Jobs like these are a warm and cozy trap. If you're spending time reading blogs you may not be spending your time in a way you can look back on with pride. Time is your ultimate limited resource and the one thing you will regret not spending more wisely.

Depending on your risk tolerance I recommend:

1. Quit, start a company of your own.

2. Quit, get one or more remote jobs.

3. Work on open source during work time.

4. Volunteer for something that benefits you and uses your time better (e.g. running training sessions on tech you know / want to know)

5. Reduce your life costs, accumulate money, retire early (FIRE)

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For me the salvation currently lies in 3. Whenever I suffer from loss of motivation I think about what I actually want to code, and usually there is something. Dig deep in memory and ask why you choose to become a dev. For me it was the tiny code projects where some interesting phenomenon could be explored. There are always new things to learn and fun ideas to try. Doing it during work hours is ok under the pretext of "training".

Or, don't worry so much about retirement and enjoy life starting today. If you enjoy reading, do that. If you enjoy something else, do that. What you shouldn't do is get stressed or feel guilt about having free time.

Adding to this, I suggest finding projects that will keep your skills up with current trends. There's a famous Reddit post from a guy who slacked at work and let his skills atrophy.

having extra time makes 5) harder, not easier!

I don't necessarily agree with that.

Having free time enables you to either upskill yourself and to move to a more lucrative position later, or perhaps even work on side projects.

Some people freelance and both get practical skills and an additional source of income (even though a somewhat inconsistent one), whereas others enjoy trying to create their own SaaS solutions which could serve as a passive income, in the age of widespread web APIs and things like Stripe making payment processing easier.

Heck, some people actually enjoy doing things that are completely unrelated to the ICT sector, so woodworking/carpentry/farming and so on could also be both nice sources of income, as well as a way of getting some fresh air and/or exercise in an otherwise sedentary lifestyle.

Of course, even if some of the free time is spent not generating income but instead doing stuff like working out, that could also both improve one's quality of life and also cut down medical expenses, as well as indirectly make them more productive at their regular work due to better alertness, which may or may not further contribute to how effectively they can use those hours that they have.

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