Comment by pbw | Hacker News Reader

Comment by pbw | Hacker News Reader

The "I will be happy when" trap is a dangerous one. Work on being content with that you have. Your health, your family, your friends, your hobbies. The fact that you live in 2023 and have the entire world of entertainment and information at your fingertips, something no human in the previous 200,000 years had.

> Everyone says ... a true engineer's paradise.

I've never had this impression of FAANG. I always figured there were a tiny number of people working on amazing projects, surrounded by a much larger number of people keeping the lights on, or working on very periphery projects that either no one cares about or which will never ship because of politics or business whims. Did you really think it would be ... paradise? Thinking that about ANYTHING is a recipe for dire soul-crushing disappointment.

> I've never had this impression of FAANG.

I have. It was a popular myth when I was coming up. I'm the same age as the OP (40, graduated in 2005). Back in the early 00s, google was seen by most as the promised land. Facebook was too, for a while. Those initial impressions, even though they were formed from afar, can be hard to shake.

It kind of still is in terms of compensation. And many equate promised land with compensation unfortunately.

It was more than money. Back then the crazy Faang pay bump was less of a thing. But the chance to be trusted with broad autonomy and work with brilliant people on projects that could help billions of people is something very special. People were drawn there by 20% time back in the day. This is barely a thing now, but the difference seems to be covered by the increased FAANG bucks.

By “20% time” do you mean the recommendation to spend 20% of your time learning?

Re. FAANG I feel this must have been true at some point? I knew people who worked at these places in the 2010s and they loved it. I think I must have missed the golden period. There are probably still great teams with great culture at these places but they are difficult to get into and are the minority now.

And you're right, my expectations absolutely set me up for failure.

>”Work on being content”

Is that a thing? I don’t think that’s a thing (separate from working on creating the conditions for contentment, which you might have a wrong idea about, but which are nevertheless real and out in the world).

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