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Comment by throwawaysleep | Hacker News Reader

Let me give you a new perspective.

You get to see your dying father for just one week as that is all the vacation time you have left and you cannot just walk away from your job due to house/kids/etc. Happened to a friend. Father had 6 months to live. He got 1 week with him in that time. Pile of cash lets you walk away. How horrible will that make you feel to not get to spend that time with him?

My employer, who I will end up leaving in a year anyway (if they do not lay me off as every company I have been with has had layoffs) as the best way to get a raise is to leave, is way, way, way, way down on the list of people it hurts to disappoint.

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Since you mentioned taking time off, how does that work for you with three jobs?

I would do the same as you if oprimozimg for income. But I tend to optimize for free time rather than income. So I take 4-5 months of PTO a year at one "full time" job which takes ~15 hours/week. (TC > $400k)

Happily trade my situation for yours. Very nice setup.

I have generous vacation at all jobs and at a prior job, I just quit to go on vacation after lining up another job to start in a few weeks, so booking the same time off everywhere is easy.

I am an unimportant rank and file developer.

I feel this very very very much, I wish we could talk in person, I am tortured every day by this exact problem. I am very jealous of people who are "that rational" "are able to adopt that perspective".

To my point, people don't do this even though everyone knows it, and its obvious, because....:(

FYI, it's not a rationality question. This involves ethical questions you can rationally argue about.

Companies don't have moral responsibilities, they have legal ones (and the least they can lobby for.) The only people burdened with moral responsibilities in the employer-employee relationship seem to be the employees.

Living up to your side of a contract is a general principle, and one we expect companies to also live up to. Not working 3 full time jobs is a legal obligation.

Yeah, addressed upthread. Acting like there's some abstract dialogue to have here hides the ball. This isn't a common viewpoint, there's a reason why, and it's not because people arent aware

I have no idea what you're saying or what upthread you're referring to.

Ok, gotcha: upthread, meaning, like, "post prior to this one, under same triangle". I'm outta date on lingo. Maybe "GP"? I see that on Reddit to mean grandparent post.

Okay, I didn't think "upthread" was so specific.

But you were the one who introduced the word "rationality". It implies ethical behavior is somehow irrational. I don't believe it is.

I understand your focus here, I assume you put quotes around it because it's not being used in it's technical sense and you'd like me to admit I know that. I do

To ease your mind, let's keep the quotes and say I'm from Mars and don't share your definition of rationality, I'm using it wrong, but you want to avoid coming to a shared definition in order to have conversation without derailing:

it would be highly "irrational" to adopt this viewpoint given no code would ever be delivered if everyone adopted it. "Unstable equilibrium", in "game theory" sense. Everyone "can't" do it, but everyone "should" do it

(note airquotes again, don't want to come across as being a jerk and writing a book in response in order to be technically correct, could look patronizing since I think you understand the point)

Well one thing you can always take solace in is the knowledge you are honest. No amount of money can purchase integrity, and at the end of the day what you think of yourself is one of the most important things .

Fully agree with your ideas here; I suspect you and I to be around the same post college age. Is it a lack of morality about "screwing over employers"? No. It's not being disillusioned to the idea that being loyal reaps rewards. If you don't go out of your way to self advocate, you'll end up left far, far behind.

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