Comment by maxklein | Hacker News Reader

Comment by maxklein | Hacker News Reader

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Learn this lesson very quickly: Do not complain! You care about what you do, but think about your priorities. Really, think about them. You want to:

1. Be happy 2. Make money 3. Be promoted

It's not a startup, so you are not trying to be ultra rich. Now, when you complain you are first and foremost making yourself unhappy. That defeats the purpose of working there. First rule is that you be happy. And the best way to be happy is to ignore the bad stuff, focus on the good stuff and work on making everyone else happy.

You guys may be producing terrible code at work, but imagine a workplace where you are producing terrible code, but everyone is laughing and making jokes and so on.

Refocus your energy on making you and everyone around you happy. Forget the technology - let them make the decisions! That's what they are there for! Just focus on making yourself happy and your team members happy.

When everyone is happy, morale goes back up, make your manager part of this pleasant team. When people are laid back and relaxed, they are more likely to do sensible things.

The minute negativity comes into the team, it's all going to go downwards. You dislike your job, everyone gets infected by your dislike, and even if you win the argument, you lose at life.

So, forget the technology and focus on the people.

I agree with some of the points above. Most people want to "1. Be Happy" and "2. Make Money" but not everyone needs to be promoted to feel happy or valued.

I have to disagree that "the best way to be happy is ignore the bad stuff, focus on the good stuff, and work on making everyone else happy."

You can only ignore things for so long, and making others happy will not necessarily make you happy.

There are just some places where the management is so screwed up that you're going to be miserable if you want to have any creative control or have your input considered and valued. In this instance you either have to try to change the management, which in most situations is unlikey, or find a new job.

Again, your point that he should "Refocus your energy on making you and everyone around you happy. Forget the technology - let them make the decisions" is not always the best approach in my opinion. The author mentioned that he would be ashamed to put this project on his resume. Do you think that he wants to work for a place that does an awful job and then put that on his resume? He can't ignore what the copmany is doing if he wants to put it on his resume. What kind of reputation will it give him if he has worked for years at a company that does nothing but put out crap?

I think that many of the ideas stated above work in certain situations and with certain people. But not eveyone acts and thinks the same and not everyone can live with the same kind of work environment or make the same kinds of decisions.

Thanks @maxklein, this is really insightful.

You are absolutely right, complaining doesn't change things.

My priority in life is actually money (not wealth), since then I can earn freedoms I would otherwise not have, like working on what I like. And right now I don't earn much, but some of the people I work with have been great, so detachment is really hard to achieve.

I'm thinking, as other people said, to work on a startup, but until then your advice is great: I should work on improving the team's morale. That would help everybody, including me.

This kind of hits it on the head because it begs the real question of how are you fundamentally motivated? Art or Commerce? Or?

Most people are perfectly happy settling for commerce. :-/

If one wants to create art, then one should be implementing ones own ideas. If you are implementing someone elses ideas, you are a builder, not an architect. A builder should do his job as best as he can, which is to make sure the thing gets built according to the architects vision. He should not be challenging the architect.

One really has to consider these issues. If you NEED to make art, then go do your own stuff! If you are there to make money, then do the best job you can for them, which means that you should not drag down the entire workplace.

And anyways, I would not waste a day of my time in a place where I could not make myself happy. That's the most important focus - people have to make themselves as happy as they can within the system. If you want to change the world, then don't start by being a html programmer in a large company.

Just when you thought selling out was only a concern for musicians and painters, eh?

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