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Comment by nicbou | Hacker News Reader

The topic is nice, but above all I thoroughly enjoy the writing.

I feel like I get a lot more done precisely because I don't like to eat frogs. I sleep until I'm rested. I don't touch my computer until I've had tea on the balcony. I work on what feels right, when it feels right, for as long as it feels right. If the weather is nice, I'll hop on my bicycle and forget about work.

But when something sparks my interest, I have stores of energy to throw at it. My appetite for work is unrestrained by the frogs I've had for breakfast.

I embraced the fact that I am not a machine, and that my output is neither constant nor predictable. I'd rather respect the tides of my energy than fight against them.

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What is your occupation where you get paid to work only on what feels right, only when it feels right, for only as long as it feels right, with leeway to hop on your bicycle and forget about work whenever you want?

Cause I am interested in this line of work. At least if it pays enough to live comfortably.

Remote software engineer at a company with good WLB

Intersting. I am also a remote software engineer, but either working "feels right" a lot less for me than for you, and I feel like spending time outside riding my bike a lot less than you, or my employer is a lot less tolerant of taking the day off to ride my bike because work just didn't feel right.

I am curious how many hours a day/week you work, and if you are open about this with your employer...

I wouldn't say that I'm taking my day off to go ride my bike without telling anybody, but I would say that working from home affords me flexibility to, say, take a few hours to get a massage, go work out, or take my time making lunch.

I make sure I'm aligning my personal technical interests with the kinds of projects I work on for the company, so work feels more like a fun puzzle to solve rather than slogging through tedium. Generally I don't work late into the evenings, but sometimes a problem is really just that fun to solve, and I enjoy spending time on it. Other times, projects may be less interesting, so I work fewer hours, letting myself rest. Burnout is real, and it sucks, and I avoid it at all costs.

My employer really just cares that I get my work done, not how many hours it takes to do it. If I'm getting "meets all" or "exceeds" in my yearly ratings, then I'm meeting or exceeding their standard, and we're both happy.

I have a similar schedule, although a slightly more organized. I try to be available from 9 to 4, atleast through emails if I'm not in my office, because that's when other people also work and might need me. I often leave mid-day to go running or come in late because I went bouldering in the morning. If I don't feel inspired to write or work, I often instead go for a walk and read books tangentially to my research topics. Then some days I'll work 12 hours straight.

I mostly work when it feels right, yes, and do something else when it doesn't. But I am doing my PhD and (in Canada) it absolutely does not pay enough to live comfortably.

allaboutberlin.com. I'm self-employed, and I have no direct customers. So long as my bills are paid, everything else is extra. I can invest time into more, better content, but I can also mess around with things that don't make money. More often than not, they turn out to do just that. "If you build it, they will come."

Mind you, I still have to work, but there's rarely anything that needs to be done right now, unless I goofed up while fiddling with nginx.

Before that I was a contractor for a year or two. After seeing contracting colleagues disappear for months-long vacations, I wanted in on that.

Before that I was a regular employee in Europe, where work culture is far more relaxed. I had more vacation days as an intern than my parents in the home country ever had. I also became really good at aggressively cutting meetings for me and my team, which gave us more time to experiment without affecting output.

In Germany, you also have the right to reduce your work hours. Coincidentally, that's the article I'm currently working on.

There's a minimum number of frogs that you have to eat. Mine is very low out of sheer luck. However there are different ways to bring most people's number down, starting with don't glorify eating frogs.

What's the business model for allaboutberlin.com, if you don't mind me asking?

It's essentially the same question as the original question - how can you afford to only work when you want?

How do you make money from that website? Seems like you have a donate button. But other than that?

Affiliate links on things an immigrant needs during their journey. There's enough genuine demand to skip the sales pitch entirely. The quality of the advice gives the rare product recommendations a lot of weight.

What a great website, and nicely organized, and also well written. Congrats!

That is a great website. Very well thought out and actionable. That model can surely be replicated for other arenas. You have actually thought about what people need and given an easy way to find it. Big props for that!

coincidentally, i'm sure the rent freeze has had a positive effect on your ability to pay your bills without stress

The rent freeze that was retroactively cancelled? No. It didn't help anyone.

When I interviewed for my current job, I had to take psychology test and I'm very skeptical to those kind of tests. The guy that ran the test explained that this wasn't about putting me into a colored box but trying to figure out what I naturally preferred to do in a work situation with the idea being that things that I enjoy are probably things that I'm good at because it takes less energy to perform. I don't know if it works but it's an interesting idea, things that takes less energy, you do more and you're probably more proficient at it.

I had a similar experience which, when combined with my academic background, pointed toward a particular corporate need that (to my surprise) was mostly received as unpleasant. It’s a decision support role starting with a risk-based statistical model of products, then devising for hypothetical competing devices the best selling points. The test was useful to decide which frog, reminded me of the movie Brazil.

>was mostly received as unpleasant. By this, do you mean the role ended up unpleasant to you?

No, people had assumed it was hard and non-redeeming. Part of me thought that the personality quiz worked surreptitiously to identify me as someone just boring enough to put up with it.

I'd walk immediately. These sort of hiring practices are demeaning and a warning sign that those running the show are blithering idiots.

> work on what feels right, when it feels right, for as long as it feels right

How have you achieved this?

I once had a setup like this, but eventually the work which permitted that freedom got boring, and I was so void of responsibility that I felt a pain of meaninglessness. Climbing out of this hole was via a feast of frogs.

One way is to minimize your responsibilities and requirements to maintain your lifestyle.

Most people get indoctrinated into a 1:1 relationship with what they make and their lifestyle cost.

I find that this comes with kids. Once the kids come, many are compelled to play the game since many feel responsible for their kids’ health and future opportunities (education).

This turns into competing for best schools districts, which turns into paying as much as you can for land, to surround yourself with others who can pay at least as much as you can.

In the US, healthcare costs also keep people on their toes. Between health insurance premiums and annual out of pocket maximums, you need somewhere around $24k per year plus ~$34k emergency funds for 2 years worth of out of pocket maximum healthcare expenses for a family of 4.

If I was single or without kids, I would not necessarily care enough about any of that.

Sounds nice to either have no real outside demands upon your time, or to sufficiently lack emotional attachment to anything you do such that it can’t exert pressure on you.

That said, I don’t know if I’d actually want to live that dispassionately.

That's a very uncharitable take. What part of my comment makes you think that I live dispassionately?

The whole point is that my work is almost single-handedly defined by passion. When that runs dry, I take a break and do other things. It's easier to do good work with a well-rested mind full of ideas.

Not to mention, the work you perform while in that rested, ready state is of better quality than it would be otherwise.

I think what people envy is that not everyone get to achieve your set of options. This article is by an academic advisor for students at an elite university. I have a feeling that GP was a post that didn’t need to be made, but to achieve your set of options, a lot of things have to go right. You can’t have kids too young, you can’t take on disabled family members, you can’t make certain career choices because you have to pay for aging parents. Some people have to pick up and move everything because of politics. And drug and gambling addiction add at least a frog a day.

I'm admittedly sitting on a winning lottery ticket, no doubt.

But it came out of the many impulses I followed when I should have been eating frogs. Other impulses got me all sorts of connections, career boosts and other perks.

Some frogs you just have to eat, but I don't think that anyone's denying that. The original article is questioning competitive frog-eating. In my experience, refusing to eat those frogs is how you end up finding other ways.

This guy who makes computers put it best: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYfNvmF0Bqw

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