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Comment by NotAnOtter | Hacker News Reader

Whenever I read these "I was at <faang> for 20 years and am now leaving" it always translates to "I have become unreasonably wealthy, mostly due to the company itself N-tuppling in value. And now after 20 years I don't need or care to have a day job that requires me to show up when I don't feel like it."

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I'm sure people who have worked at FAANG for 20 years aren't starving in the streets, but you don't know enough about their financial situation to predict whether they are "unreasonably wealthy." How much of their salary went straight in to their landlord's pockets? Towards student loan interest? Towards health issues, childcare, or taking care of extended family members? Maybe they tried investing and lost money. Heck, maybe they just prioritized travel over saving money, or something. You can't just assume someone has F-you money just because they worked for 20 years.

Anyone at Google from 2005 to 2025 is a multi millionaire many times over based on stock value alone. Even a savant at squandering money would struggle to come out of 20 years at Google without unreasonable wealth.

It only takes a spouse with a personality disorder and a divorce to change the calculus.

People who are bad with money are bad with money, no matter how much money they have. Look up the financial problems Judy Garland and Johnny Depp have had, for instance.

Squandering great wealth requires great wealth in the first place

Sure, but it's often the case that if you squander a small income you'll squander a large income. Obviously nobody can live in Silicon Valley on $10k/year; but if you find yourself struggling to stay within your means with $50k/year in a typical town, you'll find yourself struggling with $500k/year as well.

For the most part, yes, yes you can.

I half-typed a longer message but when it came time to actually do math assuming some averages for annual saving, interest, google stock growth, etc. I decided it wasn't worth the effort.

You wrote me original message with less words

> How much of their salary went straight in to their landlord's pockets? Towards student loan interest?

I don’t think comments like these really understand the incredible value of FAANG comp over the past 20 years. People who got and kept these jobs had a true golden ticket.

Paying rent and student loan interest are a rounding error.

These were not normal jobs in normal circumstances.

> You can't just assume someone has F-you money just because they worked for 20 years.

At Google? You can. Or they spent it all, in which case the point still applies.

There's the fact that they almost certainly don't need to work another day in their life.

But they probably haven't for many years.

So their reasons for choosing now to leave are probably a bit more interesting not wanting to show up if they don't need the money.

That's not what Ian said, and he always says what he means.

It's possible for Ian to mean what he says, while also missing additional context (high net worth) that changes the perspective of the reader.

I'm reading something else; I think they would have been financially secure, if not rich, for the biggest part of those 20 years already - if they weren't, during the boom times they could've jumped ship a dozen times over already.

Very, very few people actually work for that long for a tech company these days, at least in the IT sector in Europe.

Dude you have no clue what you’re talking about. I used to love when I’d see him as my reviewer because somehow he had the code reviews back in minutes and was always great to work with.

The main reason I’ll quit Google one day is the feeling people have that code reviews can sit and wait for many days. I grind to a halt.

So what you wrote is the most shining endorsement in this whole discussion.

You’re forgetting that they also want the adulation that comes with leaving and everyone singing their praises.

My dad and before him my uncle “retired” from tech at ~61 too, neither didn’t wrote a blog post

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