Ask HN: What would you do if your skills/connections have atrophied? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What would you do if your skills/connections have atrophied?

5 pointscodeatrophy5 comments

I'm 32. I have a math degree from a top ten US university and for the last six years have been working a job that earns about 140k a year at a remote job that is essentially meaningless and about ten hours a week? My skills have atrophied. I do all my work in Python/Pandas which I learned the first month on my job and essentially have not expanded my coding skillset since. The company is not a tech company and our projects are ad hoc/disorganized and truly feel out of date if I were thrown into another company.

During this time I have tried to take advantage of the lax schedule to pursue a few side projects that although were interesting (even ended up on front page of HN once) were not sustainable or profitable as their own thing.

Anyone ever been in a similar situation? Did you do a coding boot camp or just search for new jobs? I feel like, given my lack of progress on my skills, the best case scenario for me is to find another job with slightly less pay and way more hours which does not sound fun. Though perhaps in the long run I need to take the dive and go for it.

> (even ended up on front page of HN once) were not sustainable or profitable

It's fine launching on HN, but you will enjoy a brief moment in the sun before your daily active signups start to dwindle. Like any good marketing strategy you need diverse channels to spread the word. You need to be active on Twitter, LinkedIN, Product Hunt, Facebook, Reddit, Instagram, TikTok and a few lesser known platforms like Mastodon, Parler, Gab, etc

And you need to leverage those channels the right way. So Reddit would be useful for AMAs, TikTok for vertical videos, Facebook for groups and supporting a community, Twitter for small announcements about your product/service. Then there's word of mouth which is the holy grail of marketing. A lot of that leverages luck and network effects.

To be totally honest here, if I was making 140k us a year and remote working 10/hr a week... I'd be living in Colombia or another such place and not worrying about my skills. 60+% of my income would go in to investments. I'd continue to phone it in for the next ten years and then not a job after that. If you're really bored with all your free time you could continue pursuing a skills through open source projects and such things.

If you only have to work 10 hrs/week, what are you doing in the other 40? You could be learning useful skills, working on a side-hustle, etc. Your failed side projects to date suggests that you might not be looking at real problems that need to be solved.

You have an opportunity that many people would be delighted to have. Of course, you could always quit and get a "better" job and let somebody else have your problems and income.

My skills have already atrophied. I'm just coasting in my job now. Been at this company for 10 years now. I make way less than $140k too.

Just coast and enjoy it.

If I were in your situation, I'd spend my free time contributing to the Linux kernel or something.

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