Ask HN: The Pessimism and the Side-Hustle

Feel free to argue against this premise, but let's assume side-hustles only succeed when enough motivation is bled away from the primary job role otherwise you might have focused on improving yourself, expanding your scope of responsibility. Maybe it's high-and-mighty to assume every successful side-hustle came from 'quiet-quitting' at work, but I ask because I've seen it but don't have much experience to understand.

What happened at work?:

- Did you have the opportunity to negotiate for improvements: raises, positions, deconstructing bad processes, etc.? (I guess this hints at one kind of obvious exception maybe it was a summer-break/winter-break thing when these types of negotiations simply don't happen because of social norms/holidays)

- What objectively caused your pessimism?

- What harmed your motivation to contribute?

- When did you know that resigning to the fact that your own job performance could no longer improve your situation at work?

- What does that feel like?

- What heuristics would you recommend to know when you're no longer going to directly improve in your role?

- Was there a cost-benefit of contributing your side-hustle to the company or not?