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Comment by Baeocystin | Hacker News Reader

No, I'd do that in a heartbeat. There are so many things I want to do, try, read, or learn, and yet I will never have the time, because I have to work. A high end salary for a minute of pain is so much better than what I currently have to do that it's ridiculous.

Still fantastic writing, though. Just personally can't relate.

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It wasn't just a minute of work though. The manager scheduled happy hours, in the office bar no less. There was an expectation that he had to be there. While the main character skipped several of these, he was nudged by Chris, the manager, to attend a coworker's farewell party. Given that the main character ultimately got PIPed for dodging a punch, it's assumed that he would get scolded somehow for not going.

But in fact the punch is a metaphore for the feeling you can have each day that you get a glimpse of your boss, who does not care about you and provides you with busy work. And that feeling sticks the rest of the day. The try, read learn easily gets changed for staring at the tail of a dead squirrel, or at a thrashcan for that matter.

> Just personally can't relate.

I would have thought the same about 10 years ago, and then ... life got interesting.

I was always going around with at least a book! How bad a punch is after all? Is it worse than tripping and falling with skis? And we still want to ski more almost immediately, right? Just work out a bit, get some protective layer, try to come up with some sustainability strategy with Chris so he doesn't punch in the same place all the time, and let's go!

... and now I can relate a lot more to the character. But after many years I read a book this year! (I mean other than this ~150 page short story. :D)

Mental health shit is insidious.

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