We Have Luxurious Jobs but We Are Not Aware of It - <AUTHOR> http://blog.gedrap.me/blog/2014/02/27/we-have-luxurious-jobs-but-we-are-not-aware-of-it/ <comment><USER4> Yes, working from home is great. It is a luxury. Working at your own pace is also nice.

But working "on the Internet" means you're also comparing yourself to the best, brightest, and driven. Then it seems like you're achieving maybe 10% of what you seemingly could be, because you're setting your own goals based on what you see out there.

It's like getting stuck in traffic. You can point out that I'm sitting in climate-controlled car, listening to a podcast, drinking coffee, having a better time than 99% of humans throughout history. It's true. I know it's true. And I'm still frustrated that I can't go faster, and I rock in my seat every time I move ahead a little as if trying to propel the car forward. It's irrational, that's the point, no amount of explaining will make it go away.

<comment><USER5> So what is the hack that keeps us from constantly taking our luxuries for granted? Just as with the traffic situation, how often do we find ourselves complaining about having to do the laundry or the dishes or vacuuming or even heating up something for dinner -- all fairly small and easy tasks thanks to the help of technology, which took much more time and labor in a previous generation?

Yes, it's true that the complaining pushes us to find ways to make our lives even easier. But in the meantime, why are we unable to sustain our enjoyment for what we've got? If we could just change our thinking on this and begin to appreciate the amazing place we've reached on a more regular basis, imagine how much happier we'd all be. But what's the hack to do that?

<comment><USER6> I was given some brilliant advice by an older gentleman once: he said to find 1 or 2 things that enjoy more than most people, to let yourself really enjoy those things, and be modest in all other things - and then you'll really be happy, but be able to give more to those less fortunate. For instance, he loved music, and he splurged to have a high-quality system in his car. And he focused on really enjoying that, cut back in the rest of his life and gave more to charity, and still felt like he was "living the life".

I've done the same thing. I love watching a good movie at the end of the day, and I love visiting my home town. So I bought myself a nice TV, I take regular trips back home, and I feel like I have it made all the time. I drive a _very_ modest vehicle and live in a _very_ modest place, but I really appreciate how I live now and try to focus the rest of my resources on others.

<comment><USER7> A book that may capture and elaborate on the above (esp. re: modesty) is "How to Want What You Have" by Timothy Miller:

[http://www.amazon.com/How-Want-What-You- Have/dp/0805033173](http://www.amazon.com/How-Want-What-You- Have/dp/0805033173)

The typical "western" approach to happiness is: "I have X but I want Y, therefore, to be happy I need to achieve Y." This book reverses the equation: "I have X but want Y, therefore, to be happy I need to learn to want X." That idea may sound radically counterintuitive on first hearing, but it's reflected in many of the world's spiritual traditions.

What's especially great about it is that it approaches the subject from a rational, scientific viewpoint, so if you find yourself turned off by the spiritual side of buddhism or whatnot, the book will be welcome.

Also, music is a good call generally - the ability to play an instrument will repay itself many times over a lifetime.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> No, we do not have luxurious jobs. Other people have really really shitty jobs.

Software developers are just getting the kind of _relative_ pay and conditions improvements that a much larger number of people took for granted in the 60s and 70s. It's everyone else who is fucked.

<comment><USER9> This.

We enrich "business guys" with connections to billion dollar exits while we ourselves make middle-class or slightly upper-middle class wages. Meanwhile anyone willing to take out the loans to put themselves through Dental school will eventually make more than we do and if they have the motivation to open up their own practice, much more than we do.

<comment><USER10> I agree with the sentiment, but I think your facts are a bit off and reflect HN insularity. The median 33% household income ("middle class") in the US is $30,000 to $62,500 ( _household_ ).

Even if you are the sole earner in your household, it is still unlikely that you make less than $62,500. If you do make less than that, ask for a raise. If you don't make less than that, or your combined household income is more than that, you are a member of the upper class, and you should try and remember your privilege. (Hey, life's not so bad.)

<comment><USER11> By any reasonable definition, being well-off means being able to take out a mortgage on a house, afford occasional vacations to other parts of the world, invest in the stock market, support a family, put your kids through college, give to different charities, save for retirement, all in addition to helping family members in need, which one would do under any circumstances. A software developer _might_ be able to do these things in California, but only barely, unless they have a very cushy arrangement or they've ridden an exit for a startup. Those at the median household income in the US (or anywhere else) are being shafted. The economy is broken.

<comment><USER12> Hint: Don't live in California. There are plenty of well-paid software jobs in places like Boston, Chicago, Northern Virginia, Atlanta, Florida, Austin, etc.

They might not have the glut of "hot" startups that Silicon Valley does, but they have much more reasonable cost of living.

<comment><USER9> What I was alluding to with my comment was that software developers create a tremendous amount of wealth while seeing little of it. That is as true outside SV as it is inside.

<comment><USER13> I'd encourage you to set up shop as an entrepreneur, consultant, or ISV. Then you will a.) get to keep _all_ of the wealth you create (well, minus taxes - damn you Uncle Sam) and b.) get a true idea of how much wealth you _actually_ create.

Personally, I've done both the entrepreneur and employee route, and I created _and kept_ a whole lot more money as an employee. I may go back to being an entrepreneur in the future - I'm certainly a lot more skilled than the last time I tried it - but the experience of founding my own startup and working 5 years in a big company has taught me a whole lot about the value that _other_ job functions create, like sales, design, management, finance, capital, etc. It's really easy to look at your output as a software developer and say "I built the thing that makes my company hundreds of millions of dollars, and I only get to see hundreds of thousands of it", without realizing that none of that hundreds of millions in value would've been created without marketing to understand what people want, product design to understand how to supply it, UX to make it usable, sales to let people know about it, management to make all these functions work together, or finance to pay for it.

<comment><USER14> > _I 'd encourage you to set up shop as an entrepreneur, consultant, or ISV. > Then you will a.) get to keep all of the wealth you create (well, minus > taxes - damn you Uncle Sam) and b.) get a true idea of how much wealth you > actually create._

Or you know, you'll get an inflated idea of how much you "actually" created, just because you get to tell people what to do, and belittle their contributions because, after all you are in charge.

<comment><USER15> When I start my own company I will definitely take credit for the business I build. For the past 15 years I have been paid to build things for other people, I have been praised and I have been well paid, but I certainly don't claim credit for the creation of the companies that employed me. Even as a co- founder in my current position, there is a huge difference between coming on in a paid position and taking the risk to build something from nothing.

Developers sometimes get big heads because there is so much dead weight in the corporate world pulling paychecks for bullshit. I get that we build stuff that creates real tangible value. But just as people sometimes misunderstand the challenge of our work and the value that we bring to the table, it's easy to dismiss business-oriented entrepreneurs as just being privileged or having inside connections—all of which may be true, but until you have the stones to go put everything on the line and found your own company you don't have a leg to stand in terms of proclaiming who is bringing what value. Without the founder, nothing happens, period.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> My wife, whose dad is a coal miner and works harder in one day than I've had to my entire career, cannot figure out why I'm able to work from home whenever I want, and why my boss isn't firing me because I often sleep in and don't get online or make it into the office until maybe an hour after my "normal" hours.

Or how I can "just take off" whenever I need to go to the doctor, or for one of my sons' doctor's appointments or events at school.

I've never known what it was like to not have this flexibility. I _expect_ this flexibility, and will not work for an employer that will not give me this flexibility.

And these expectations only increase as I get further into my career or change jobs. I'm even considering taking a contracting position making 80% less and working 80% less, so I can spend 20% doing my own (productive) thing. What other profession allows this?

So yes, I definitely think I personally take this for granted, and feel in a way I'm spoiled, or at the very least desensitized to the fact that a large majority have it _way_ more difficult than I do. I do try to keep this in mind, though, but it is hard in the day-to-day grind.

So thanks for the reality check.

<comment><USER17> Do you mean 80% less or 80% of what you currently make? You make good points either way, just curious.

<comment><USER16> Oh, sorry, 80% of what I currently make. Big difference. :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> There are definitely amazing, luxurious aspects of programming. Something came into view for me recently though, that I never realized before:

When I graduated from high school, I started my own little (tutoring) company, and did software from after that, so I never had the experience of a "normal", hourly job, like retail or coal mining or whatever.

Recently I had an opportunity to do a job like that and the mood struck me to try it out for like a month. I realized something huge about our jobs versus a lot of other jobs:

I make more than $100/hr sitting in my pajamas, and I'm totally blessed. But I work my fucking ass off. My brain is fully engaged, and when I charge you $125 for an hour of my time, you got more than that value, because I was __working __, firing on all cylinders.

What I realized in this other job was that even though I worked like 10 hours, it felt like I didn't do much because... I didn't. My coworkers and I, we did some stuff, chatted, laughed a bit, did another bit or piece, took lunch, etc. We spent a lot of time just socializing, having down time, not thinking too hard.

I also noticed that there wasn't really room to do "better". The nature of the job sort of set a cap on how productive you could be during a given time period, so the culture just grew around that. Think of a gas station attendant sitting around watching TV most of the day, the night audit at the hotel, or the guy flipping burgers when it's not lunch time.

That's when I really got the distinction between $10-20/hr work and $100+ -- we, collectively do difficult, mentally taxing work that requires long hours of intense focus, and a dedication to craftmanship that most other jobs just don't require. And we do that job under mostly under unreasonably tight deadlines, often for employers that don't understand what we're doing and therefore undermine us in many ways.

Yes, it's luxury in __many __ways. But it 's also a coal mine of its own sort.

<comment><USER19> _> Yes, it's luxury in many ways. But it's also a coal mine of its own sort._

Except you won't die from sitting home in your pajamas.

You will, however, be very to die for a multitude of reasons in a coal mine.

I'm a programmer. Yes, my brain is engaged constantly. But that's fun to me. It's not like I rue the day I became a programmer and I had to perform the terrible labor of sitting around with friends/acquaintances, sip free coffee, and make web apps. However, if you're in a sweatshop, forced to work many hours a day and likely suffer a variety injuries, you aren't doing as well.

<comment><USER20> Sedentary jobs have sedentary risks: [http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/wellness/even- with-e...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/wellness/even-with- exercise-long-periods-spent-sedentary-are-deemed-a-health- risk/2011/07/07/gIQAicwRAI_story.html)

I own a GeekDesk and swear by it. Standing sometimes while coding makes a difference!

<comment><USER21> I was interested in these, but, zomg, it's hard to take the company seriously with that faux-hawk dude on the front page.

<comment><USER22> It's hard to take them seriously when they appear to be selling a block of press board on a couple of metal stands for $1000.

To be fair, it seems all standing desks are insanely priced.

<comment><USER20> For what it's worth, it's a well-made desk, although I too was a little miffed that I had to drill directly into the pressboard wood during assembly.

You could always put your own desktop on the frame. (It's a very good frame.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> Let's be careful with that term, "luxury". You're a well-paid and comparatively comfortable wage slave, but just because you don't have to labor in a mine or a burger joint doesn't mean you are experiencing luxury.

Luxury is what these people are living: [http://www.forbes.com/billionaires/](http://www.forbes.com/billionaires/)

We would all do well to remember that the first 85 people on that list have as much wealth as the 3.5 billion poorest people in the world: [http://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2014/01/23/the-85-rich...](http://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2014/01/23/the-85-richest- people-in-the-world-have-as-much-wealth-as-the-3-5-billion-poorest/)

That is luxury – a lifestyle only attainable by an infinitesimally small number of people, and one that they protect with the might of laws they author, politicians they buy, and force they command. It's important to keep sight of where the upper limits of wealth are, lest you get confused about your class or with whom you have the most in common.

<comment><USER24> One of the interesting things that has happened with the increase in inequality is the ability for more people to say, "No, I'm not rich. _that_ guy is rich." Because as inequality rises, the people you compare yourselves to are much further away than they used to be. That's how people making 10x the median income can, with a straight face, declare themselves to be "middle class". Inequality itself is used to justify other inequality.

Having lived and traveled in developing nations, I am perfectly happy to call what I have "luxury". Which is exactly what most of the world would call it: [http://gumption.org/1993/memo/landmarks/global_income.html](http://gumption.org/1993/memo/landmarks/global_income.html)

<comment><USER25> I agree with you that what we have is luxury compared to much of the world. Like you, I've seen this first-hand.

What I think is often missing from these discussions though, is that working a low paying job in New York City, for example, also affords considerable luxury compared to much of the developing world. That hypothetical person working that low paying job might not feel that s/he is living in luxury -- without some agreement on what constitutes basic comfort, it's quite difficult to define luxury.

The problem, which I think you've identified well, is that even the idea of basic comfort shifts as the economic landscape shifts. When the idea of basic needs shifts, the idea of wealth shifts with it.

In general, I think it's good for those of us living in privileged areas to recognize our blessings. I also think comparisons made to the developing world tend to oversimplify the problems of inequality present here as well.

Also, not to single this comment out on the middle class thing, but I've seen a few comments here which are equating middle class with median income. Middle class is a social construct. It's not well defined.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> I have the option to work from home, but I dislike doing so, specifically because it makes it easy for me to slack and procrastinate, and because I dislike bringing my work into my home environment.

I can use the prying eyes of my peers to guilt me into getting work done, sometimes. I also much prefer to be able to stand up, walk over to someones desk, and discuss a problem (or some newly discovered exoplanet, or the price of bitcoins, ...). Picking up a phone, sending an instant message or email just isn't the same thing.

However, I'm very much aware about what a luxurious situation I'm in. I live in one of the wealthiest countries in the world, get to do a job I love (most of the time), and get paid plenty. Compared to most places in the world, this place 50 years ago or even to other professions in the same country, I'm a lucky bastard.

Doesn't mean I sometimes have a hard time concentrating, or would like to be doing something other than the work assigned to me though, but I think that's normal and would happen to anyone in any situation. First world problems, eh?

</comment><comment><USER27> Yes, this. I've had jobs where I worked in the freezing rain, etc. etc. The people cutting your grass are likely better than you. I'll just come out and say it, they are, because their life SUCKS and they get up every day and just do it. They have heart. Many people in our community have a disgusting sense of superiority and entitlement. You just don't understand unless you've been there.

What makes many people in this community vapid isn't that they're uncompassionate towards people who have it harder, it's that they musn't realize how well off they really are. It's not your fault that most of us don't have the perspective that some of us do, but the lack of it is very real.

I've been called an asshole many a time by young privileged employees that complain about the free food, that we have certain core working hours, that yes, you need to be at the team standup on time, and in presentations you should pay attention to the presenter and out of respect put down your device(s). Before someone picks those examples apart, if you are about to, you're missing the point. Relatively speaking chances are you have absolutely nothing to whine about in your work. Nothing.

<comment><USER28> > Relatively speaking chances are you have absolutely nothing to whine about > in your work. Nothing.

The problem with playing this game is that there are always bigger fish, and there are always smaller fish. Do back-breaking work 8 hours a day? At least it's not 10. Do it for 12 hours a day? At least you have a job. Don't have a job? At least you're alive in America. Not from America? Etc.

<comment><USER27> It's called gratefulness, and we have none of it.

<comment><USER29> As much as I agree with the fact that we should all be grateful for our amazing jobs, gratefulness is not the same thing as "not allowed to complain."

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> I never complain about recruiters. The fact that I'm being contacted spontaneously is completely a positive for me, and it gives me some confidence that if I were to look for a job again, my skills are in demand enough that I will never starve.

<comment><USER31> I've always found it a little off-putting when people complain about this. I get that it's probably annoying, and good for them for being in demand. But it still comes off as a humblebrag.

<comment><USER32> Can't a man walk down the street without being offered a job?

<comment><USER33> It's more akin to the "job offers" that a woman might get when walking down the wrong sort of street.

The basal level of respect for me as a professional with skills and preferences distinct from those of my peers is typically not present from the recruiter shotgunning spam all over the network.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER34> Early on in my career, I put my resume out to look for another job after a layoff. Recruiters nearly called me around the clock. I expressed frustration after the third call in a row in front of my wife. She reminded me what a blessing it was to have so many people trying to get me work and so many opportunities available, most which would give me a raise.

He father struggled after layoffs to find work in his profession, with long gaps between jobs. I realized how blessed I was to be in this line of work and stopped complaining, even about the copy/paste emails.

That said, there are different levels of competency in each profession, and recruiters are just as prone to rookie mistakes and lazy work as coders are. I have the luxury of working only with good recruiters and can filter the rest easily.

I've also lived through relatively scarce times (2002) when it was hard to get a recruiter to return my calls. I can imagine that many recruiters and firms went under and know people involved in software who had to scramble to find work (myself included). That does help me appreciate the 90% of my career that work has been plentiful.

</comment><comment><USER35> About working from home: I won't do it again, unless needed

I will go somewhere else (rent a room/desk if needed) and I'll work there.

Going from "work mode" to "home mode" is very important

"Living in the bubble of Hacker News does distort the perspective. We tend to ignore how luxurious our jobs are. We shouldn't forget that there is life outside our communities."

Oh this applies to many more things than jobs.

<comment><USER36> >I will go somewhere else (rent a room/desk if needed) and I'll work there.

It is important when working from home to have a "work area" which is only for work and nothing else. When you work from your bed you get in trouble.

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> I'm sitting at home with no commute, listening to music out of my computer speakers, in a house that's heated to my liking and I'm wearing sweatpants. For lunch I'll be baking a hot, fresh meal. At some point this afternoon I'll probably take a short nap to refresh myself.

I'm pretty aware of it.

<comment><USER38> I had a bad commute this morning, because I stubbed my toe on the way to the computer room. Also, I'm not wearing any pants.

</comment></comment><comment><USER39> The Oatmeal pretty much summed up 6pm of every weeknight of my life (I'm a stay-at-home developer, my wife is a medical resident) [http://theoatmeal.com/comics/making_things](http://theoatmeal.com/comics/making_things)

<comment><USER40> 1000x thanks for linking this. Hadn't seen it yet.

</comment></comment><comment><USER41> It's important to be reminded of this every so often. It definitely helps to get through "tougher days" if you're able to have a little perspective on how great things actually are, or how much worse they could be.

<comment><USER42> I always wonder what people mean by "tough days."

<comment><USER43> The days you don't feel like getting out of bed. The days everything in your project goes wrong. The days you think your idea is actually worthless and you're a fraud. The days you dread your investors asking for a status update. The days Murphy's Law is a bitch. The days you have a bug that just makes no sense. The days your client is being an ass and you have no desire to deal with them. The days your boss is in a bad mood. The days that one douchey coworker just keeps getting in your face.

The days that make you wish you were doing something else.

I'm sure you've had "tough days"

<comment><USER42> Oh yeah, I've had them - I wasn't being patronizing.

I just believe, due to the problem-solving behavior of engineers/techs/programmers, we tend to tunnel-vision instead of looking at the big picture.

If the big picture is going wrong, it's a problem. Now, a lot of bad days add up to a bad big picture, but if you're planning right, and you have a bit of luck, a few bad days will eventually get washed away, no matter the project.

<comment><USER44> I think Spolsky's description[1] of working at the bakery explains best how it works for me. My bad days don't seem to be anything catastrophic going wrong, just a multitude of tiny frustrations. Basically the opposite for the good days.

[1] [http://www.joelonsoftware.com/uibook/chapters/fog0000000057....](http://www.joelonsoftware.com/uibook/chapters/fog0000000057.html)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER45> Those other people, the OP is talking about, I know many of them. Many of my friends are unemployed. But even though I tried really hard to convince those of whom I thought had the head to do it, to start a IT education, or at least start learning to code at home while they have no job yet. Still I wasn't able to convince anyone. They all said that it is too hard and not something they are interested in.

That was kind of sad that they would rather sit around waiting for a low payed job instead of investing some efford for a brighter future.

I understand that not everybody is able do learn the stuff we do but many people just don't want to.

</comment><comment><USER46> Hooray to good current days!

I wouldn't call that luxurious job though. It's just that good programmers are hard to find, thus salaries go up. It's the same in all jobs that require specific skills that are relatively hard to learn. Doctors, lawyers, even skilled construction workers make a ton if they're good at their craft.

And programming is not that easy when you think about it. I keep learning new stuff every day in addition to paid hours. When I get stuck at smth, I keep working on my head during night or weekend. I feel responsible for my code quality and try to make it as good as possible by going extra mile. My GF (who earns 6x less) comes from work and relaxes till her next shift. When I finish work, that means I don't stare at screen, but I still keep it in my head.

I know bad programmers who make shitty wage for shitty code. I wouldn't call their jobs luxurious in any way. I feel sorry for for people in other fields whose skills are undervalued though.

P.S. Greetings from Vilnius

</comment><comment><USER47> Speaking to my father once, he told me "Man, you got the tiger by the tail." I try not to forget it. I don't always succeed at that.

He was more right than he knew -- maybe a couple years after he told me that, the business whose revenues he tripled decided they didn't like him, fired him, and he has been looking for work and underemployed ever since. He used to have a yacht, now he works at a chain hardware store.

</comment><comment><USER48> Why compare yourself to unsuccessful people? there are always plenty of them. Almost anyone who can read & do maths can say "i'm smarter than 50% of Earth population" so..

<comment><USER49> Only 50% of people can say that

</comment></comment><comment><USER50> It's basic economics. A lot of people can mine coal or cook a burger. Not a lot of people can write or design software. The demand outweighs the supply and hence, leverage exists for those smart enough to take advantage of it.

More importantly, engineers earn a fraction of the value they create for employers.

It's the lawyers we should all be scoffing at...

</comment><comment><USER51> technology workers complaining about recruiters is analogous to young, attractive people complaining about people hitting on them constantly. it sets off the same b.s. detectors in my brain.

to me, it's really just a childish and transparent way of bragging. even reasonable people slip into these modes when they are faced with an abundance of opportunity, most of which they don't want or feel are beneath them.

<comment><USER52> Yeah, but I think the problem with cut-and-paste recruiter spam is that it's not really an opportunity. Most of the "offers" I get don't match my skillset and would not result in a job even if I pursued them. They simply increase the noise in the channel and don't add any value to anyone.

<comment><USER33> This is further compounded by the likelihood that the jobs advertised may be sham postings that are only being spammed out to you to fulfill legal requirements for restricted visas held by imported workers.

For your own amusement, try responding to one or two, and see what happens.

It isn't quite so posh when you discover that the job opportunities constantly streaming into your inbox don't actually exist.

<comment><USER51> these are all symptoms of an industry that finds its workers in high demand, which is the root of the issue we're discussing. people are complaining about being in demand.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER53> So how are we supposed to get to "the future", where people aren't wage slaves any more but instead are free to pursue their real dreams and ambitions, if those of us fortunate enough to make some headway should feel ashamed for having done so? Give me a break.

<comment><USER54> You took the words right out of my mouth. Thanks for posting this.

</comment></comment><comment><USER55> You significantly understate the luxury which we enjoy, as even the millions of people searching for minimum wage jobs enjoy extreme luxury.

There are hundreds of millions of people living on under $2 per _day_. And yes, that is adjusted for purchasing power.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Percentage_population_livi...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Percentage_population_living_on_less_than_1_dollar_day_2007-2008.png)

</comment><comment><USER56> It's this sort of thinking that prevents people from getting help when they let their health slide and get depressed (notice that I didn't say it's this sort of thinking that causes depression. Depression is a disease.)

Yes, "First World Problems", etc. But you have to realize that your problems are actually problems. Just because other people have worse problems doesn't mean you should just suck it up and "take it like a man.

If you're feeling like you just don't want to work today, and that feeling perpetuates for more than a day or two, then you need to do something different than what you're currently doing. We used to call it "in a rut", now we recognize that it's a symptom of depression. And however mild it may be, you wouldn't wait until cancer or a chest cold were really bad until you tried to treat it.

What you need to do differently to treat your mind is going to be unique to you. Maybe it's exercising more, maybe it's sleeping more, maybe it's eating better, maybe it's just getting a hug from someone you love. Just remember, engineer, first fix yourself.

</comment><comment><USER57> No, I am keenly, almost obsessively aware of how lucky I am and how fragile my situation can be.

I have three kids, a stay at home wife, make a considerable salary and have a job I absolutely love and excel at.

But I am still fundamentally subsisting; my living expenses are just covered by what I make and am not able to save a considerable amount. This scares the bejesus out of me because all my kids are young: I have lots of expenses coming up related to providing well for them.

The most important thought I have daily, which was reinforced by the subtext of this article, is that education is the most important thing I can give to my kids.

When there are people who are "struggling to find a minimum wage job for years" to me, that means that they lack the education or skills to have a job that pays more and is in more demand. This is a failing of many parties - <USER2> it's the base of the issue.

I want my kids to be able to do whatever it is they want, but to have the skills to actually make that decision for themselves.

So, I am profoundly a aware of my position, am thankful for it and am working to ensure that I provide my children an even better life than my already great one.

<comment><USER58> I have three kids as well, and have some small hope to offer (assuming your kids are young): once the kids are at elementary school age, the financial situation gets a bit easier. After school activities typically cost less than preschool, and your wife may be able to get part-time work at that point.

Also note: with 3 kids, there is likely no place in the US where it is cheaper to send your kids to a mediocre private school than to just move to a better school district (unless you live in a rural area where your commute would severely be affected). That's one thing that I would most like to change at a policy level, but it's something that in the short-term will affect decisions you make.

<comment><USER59> "...cheaper...to just move to a better school district..."

Unless, of course, you're stuck underwater in a house that you'd lose lots of money on if you sold it.

<comment><USER58> Yeah, if you have a negative net-worth, you're in trouble.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER60> Before I got paid to compute, I drove a forklift and unloaded floor-loaded ocean containers in 150F heat. I'm acutely aware that I'm spoiled to all hell.

Its too bad all students aren't required to perform 'real work' as part of their education.

</comment><comment><USER61> I consider myself very fortunate, despite having a very strict [e.g. practically nonexistent] work-from-home allowance. It's not something I take lightly, for better and worse.

For instance, at the moment I spend ~40 hrs in the office and ~40hrs in grad school and on side projects. As a result, I have very little time available for leisure or even meaningful relationships. My extra-work effort is driven in part by a fear of skill obsolescence, and competition with my peers - <USER3> are among the best in the world at what they do.

At times I wonder if my priorities are a little backwards, but at times I feel so driven I'm not sure I could truly relax even if I wanted to.

</comment><comment><USER62> My dad likes to remind me of how much better my job is than what I could be doing.

He's done construction work all of his life, and self-employed construction for as long as I've been alive. Growing up, I often worked for him during the summers after school was out. I've done all manner of construction work under him, concrete work, plumbing, roofing, decks, fences, you name it.

He claims now that he had me doing all that so that I'd want to go to college and get a desk job, and maybe he's telling the truth. There have been some things I remember fondly about those days, but overall, there's no comparison. We have it a lot easier.

<comment><USER47> Yeah, that perspective is crucial, I think. When I was a teenager I worked at TJ Maxx for gas money. Retail/customer service type work can be and often is humiliating and somewhat dehumanizing, and of course it pays jack.

I have coworkers who not only didn't do that, they didn't work anywhere else professionally before coming to their jobs at our cushy employer. They're kind of double-screwed: they don't know how sweet this job is vs other jobs doing similar work, and they don't know how much they should be getting paid for it. So they have good jobs, that they bitch about, for which they get paid half or 60% of what they should be getting. (The pay isn't why they bitch, they don't even know they're getting underpaid.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER63> It's commendable to want to be grateful for what we have and not take it for granted, but it should never be used as an argument against wanting to improve our lot.

I can understand wanting to share your newly found sense of perspective with everyone else, but I'd like to suggest balancing it a bit with the following excerpt from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:

 _To Trin Tragula 's horror, the shock completely annihilated her brain; but to his satisfaction he realized that he had proved conclusively that if life is going to exist in a Universe of this size, then the one thing it cannot afford to have is a sense of proportion._

</comment><comment><USER64> 60 hour work week to meet a marketing deadline. No thanks. If I could get a 1/3 for a job that has no requirement of producing something and fixed hours. That way I can code for myself.

</comment><comment><USER65> Maybe.

That doesn't change the fact that I can't find a job in another sector just because I know programming.

That fact is IT actually saves a lot of money to the extent that effect is proportional to the sum of innovation.

It's true that it's an easier life to know programming nowadays, but that doesn't necessarily mean you have a better life if you're a programmer, hired or not.

I think programmers should not complain about anything or their job if they chose to swallow the blue pill and work a programming job they don't like, coding for a project they don't like.

I think you can complain if you got at least ideas for solutions that have not been tried. If you don't, and you work a job you don't like, then don't complain, because you're part of the problem.

Programming is not always about making a project work. Programming is mostly about innovation and making new useful things and improving old things.

I don't understand why most of the IT landscape is still email and http and html, technologies that have been created at the very beginning.

I think most jobs are luxurious jobs, but that's because the government is more effective than in other places. If you do programming but you don't like what you do, maybe it's because the work you're being given is just shitty. Maybe it's better than doing a shit job, but sitting doing something you don't like is as much turning people crazy than anything else.

</comment><comment><USER66> Even reading some of these comments is a bit nauseating.

If you are a software dev, designer, etc, in almost any part of the world where you can read this, you are massively lucky.

Nevermind the whole "You have internet access and can develop software for a living? Welcome to the top 50% in the world", etc; there are people in your area barely scraping by; if your only metric is others in the same economic bracket, get out more.

One of my hobbies is a martial art. Many of the students there are in much poorer straights than myself. One in particular, a young adult nearly out of high school, and already working, rides 10 miles each way to work and the martial arts school on his bike, because he can't afford public transportation. He lives paycheck to paycheck, and has to work out special payment arrangements with the instructor because of it. I don't really care if his day job is 'easier' than mine (I did it once; it wasn't for me, but whose to say it isn't for him); he has to stress how to cover bills, how to get to work when not feeling great and facing a 10 mile bike ride there and back, etc. I can call in and WFH because I have the sniffles. Or drive, because I have a car, and the funds to keep up insurance, gas, repairs, etc.

If you enjoy coding, and you get paid enough for it to cover your bills and stash some away, you are massively, massively lucky. Is it as good a break as it could, or should (were this a utopia) be? No. But compared to the unfairness many others face, you should be reveling in it, while trying to affect change not just for yourself but those who are in harder circumstances.

</comment><comment><USER67> "Even more people are getting their butts of the beds every morning, going to the job they hate, just to support the basic needs."

And you think that programmers don't? I work as a badly underpaid php developer and have slept on a couch in a ~35m² single-room apartment for the last few years. I handed in my resignation this week, because this job causes depressions that make me borderline suicidal. I'll have to live off of state welfare, if I can get it, if I don't then I'll be homeless, but I just can't take this shit anymore, so I'm taking the plunge and hope for the best.

For every well-paid and -treated programmer there are a whole bunch of underpaid and ill-treated ones. Besides, what's so wrong about not wanting to work? You as someone with a good grip on what technology can do should see that we could've started to automate the production of things needed for basic survival (food, shelter, energy…) decades, if not even longer, ago.

As far as I can tell, programmers have far greater chances to end up with depression or burnout than most other jobs, so please don't act like it's all sunshine and unicorn farts for all of us.

<comment><USER67> Of course we already have this sort of stuff largely automated; I meant in a way that doesn't just make profit for a small minority of the population.

</comment></comment><comment><USER68> From the sound of it, it's not so much a luxury problem but rather one of integrity... If you feel like the comfort of your home or your lack of motivation somehow make your job "luxurious", I'm sorry to say that the problem is in all likelihood mostly with you and not the profession. I would probably call that apathy and/or privilege.

I worked from home for quite a while, and the simple idea of getting rewarded for not achieving anything made me feel guilty and inadequate. I also happened to work in kitchens from a very young age for a few years, with ridiculous hours and pay as one would imagine, yet I often consider getting back to it. There's a particular sense of satisfaction in cooking that I've never found in programming.

All jobs come with their upsides and downsides, and all professions have people who get paid too much or not enough. I don't think you can lump in personalities and activities together like that.

I realize my tone might come through as a bit harsh, and I'm sorry if it does. I'm just a bit tired of the lazy well-off programmer stereotype, it undermines a lot of us in several ways.

</comment><comment><USER69> Some of us are actually aware of this. It's good to point out what the world is like to people who may not have first hand knowledge, but then they're still not getting any by reading this article. I'd have liked to see the author encourage others to travel, perhaps, whether geographically or economically. It's difficult to have empathy with fellow humans without actual contact.

</comment><comment><USER70> I'm fortunate enough to been able to do both manual labor and office work (coding) too, so I think I'm less critical about my job compared to someone who got a decent one straight out from uni.

After high-school I had a bunch of temporary jobs working with builders, carpenters, etc in Hungary for less than £10 / day. I was happy because it paid my day-to-day expenses.

Then I moved to London where I took a minimal wage "biorobot " job in a factory for £5.5 / hour. I sincerely thought I have a great, well paid job. I was happy

Then I applied for a startup as the first coder there, got hired and I'm still with them after 6 years. I don't even know exactly how much I make on a hourly basis, but I don't really care. I'm happy

It is all just perspective. You can be the happiest person on a very low salary, or be depressed and cranky about your job even if you make millions.

I do think programmers deserve high salaries, and luxury like working from home. Why? Because our profession is extremely unique. Every single day we have the potential to solve a problem which never been solved before.

</comment><comment><USER71> I absolutely get what you're trying to say, but---so what? How is programmers being aware of their luxurious jobs going to help people with less luxurious jobs? Will the situation for other people improve if people here merely stop complaining about recruiters and procrastination? If they merely do a mental version of catholic style self flagellation? Is this another variant of "eat your dinner, there are children in Africa starving" routine? What good does me eating my dinner do to a starving kid in Africa? Etc.

There's nothing wrong about complaining about relevant problems in one's profession, even if those problems seem nice to have to other people, and not complaining won't magically make other people's lives more comfortable. And having a "luxurious" job that pays well is nothing to be compulsively ashamed of if it's an honest job not involving exploitation of others (which programming in almost all (?) cases is).

</comment><comment><USER72> It's not really a problem in Lithuanian, but rather in the mindset of poorly educated/older generation people there. Being Lithuanian I never received a single word of encouragement from my friends or family, but rather was threatened that starting business will lead me to poverty or I would simply fail. Luckily, I spend quite a lot of time abroad (mostly SE Asia) and seen how random local village person would start his burger stall, if that fails try cooking some fried rice and even if that fails bringing money home try selling noodles or whatever else. I mean those guys would never give up and that's sort of mindset that let's you have a better life.

Personally I try not to spend to much time back home even I'm officially running business there, I much rather stay in Mauritius as I do now, or go back to SE Asia. Being around enthusiastic and happy people makes you one too and once you happy money is no longer an issue, it just finds its way to you..

</comment><comment><USER73> Yet another bullshit article.

IT has zero entrance barrier, anyone can pick up tutorial from internet and start software development. Many people give up after they find out that software development is actually very hard.

And work from home is not luxury. Even East Asia textile sweatshops offer work from home. It is just Californian startups who require total control over their minions.

<comment><USER74> > Even East Asia textile sweatshops offer work from home.

I'd like to learn more about this. Intuitively, it makes sense for something like this to be true; the "workers slaving away at assembly lines in factories 12 hours a day 7 days a week" meme seems a bit too ancient and well- established to be accurate and we definitely don't see that many sources of what the East Asia sweatshop lifestyle is actually like. Any links?

<comment><USER73> It is story from asian friend. Every morning her family would collect batch of clothes for sewing and return it finished at evening. Also Japan industry during WW2 worked this way, lot of work was done in family homes, central factories were only used for steel.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER75> Might be like that in the US, but in other parts of the world, being a software developer is not that glorious. Average pay, constant high work loads, doing very challenging work but being seen as a coding slave.. doesn't matter much if you work from home or not in that case, most projects aren't really enlightening.

</comment><comment><USER76> Yes I realize some/most of us have a privileged job. However, I believe that it's reasonable that people who are exceptionally talented expect something better.

Sometimes you know you are exceptionally talented, they tell you, you know how to build stuff, how to fix stuff, how to get to the heart of the problem, how to learn new stuff quickly, how to write down code and documentation.

Yet you have move countries (sometimes at the expense of family and quality of life) and/or spend hours every day commuting because your company values physical presence above all that.

I don't think that's an unreasonable thing to complain.

Even if we are lucky, lucky to have talent or just lucky that the talent we have is highly valued (unfortunately not all talented people are so lucky), I still think it's reasonable to complain.

</comment><comment><USER77> Yes we make more money, but we also take our work with us and the stress that comes along with mentally taxing work.

It's 11pm and I might be thinking of a problem at work I've been tangling for for the past 4 days.

A gardner or a construction worker leaves work and _leaves work_, you feel me?

<comment><USER78> And your'e stacking that up against the stress the gardener or construction worker has of losing their job and not having a million other options, or not being able to support medical insurance for their family because of what they earn?

Even excluding that, having worked in a fairly brain dead job I found the stress of 9 hours a day doing something that dull WAY more stressful than being able to use my mind but being under some pressure to do so.

<comment><USER77> I'm not saying "we have problems, 'they' don't". I'm illustrating the fact that EVERYBODY has problems. Software development isn't all peachy 100% of the time. [Let's call it 80% of the time ;)]

<comment><USER79> Sounds nice

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER80> Yeah, I feel luxurious every weekend I spend working on somebody else's code mess.

</comment><comment><USER81> While this might be true for a large portion of HN's audience, there are also developers stuck in shitty positions in countries where making $100K writing software is a pipe dream. I'd be happy if I was paid a third of that.

<comment><USER82> I don't make $100K either. But together with my wife's income, we've still got it pretty comfortable. You don't need $100K to live comfortably.

<comment><USER81> Indeed, and I certainly don't need $100K either. I don't even live in an area where the cost of living is especially high, but I currently make _less_ than what I was earning working on an assembly line in a factory. While I'm not dirt-poor I'm unable to make any savings or plans for the future. As I don't have much aside, I can't really try my luck in a better area as moving is not free. At least I'm only responsible for myself, so there's that.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER83> I used to work as a line cook, I made ~$13/hr (Canadian) and I worked from 5pm-3am, about 6 days a week including weekends. It stole my life away from me. The world of kitchens was hot, hostile, fast-paced and overall just terrible. There were no sick days. I did it from age 15-22. It's not to say that I didn't love it because I did, but it was hell.

Now I sit at a desk all day and get paid to type out a fancy language at a leisurely pace for nearly three times as much. It's insane how hard I used to work for so little, compared to how much I now get paid to work so little.

</comment><comment><USER84> When I'm depressed/sad/whining and people ask "what's wrong" or "how am I doing". They laugh when I reply with variation of "Good, I'm not being genocided". But that is my serious reply. Like this article states, no matter how "crappy" I imagine my (MUC, white, male, american) life to be, If I rationally examine it It is magnitudes better than 90+% of the people on the planet. Thinking about the people struggling to find drinking water or not be killed by their neighbors puts things in perspective.

</comment><comment><USER85> I think it is like anything. Every job has its benefits and its tradeoffs. It is just that different jobs have different benefits and tradeoffs for different people. If you enjoy your job as a programmer and you enjoy applying algorithms to real world problem then yes, I agree it is a luxurious job.

However if you hate programming (which means you shouldn't be doing this job) but for some reason (financial, social, etc) you continue to work in this field then the tradeoffs could outweigh the benefits.

</comment><comment><USER86> I agree with this.

Look, if you don't enjoy programming/data/technology then you're probably in the wrong field.

But I think it's ok to have to force yourself to work on the stuff you don't enjoy as much. You just need to have adequate enjoyment from what you do, and the self discipline to do what you enjoy doing. At the end of the day, you're lucky to enjoy what you're doing half of the time, and to be making many times more than the rest of the world's population could make.

</comment><comment><USER87> Yes, programming is very luxurious. And, I try to remind myself of that everyday. I earn 2-3 times that of most of my non-programmer friends. And, generally, it's been a luscious existence.

But, I think the mechanisms of my brain that make me good at programming also make me prone to emotional stress, misery, mood cycles, etc. So, yeah, even though I love programming, especially regarding the creative aspects, I also sometimes wish I could have been born with different genes.

</comment><comment><USER88> There was a story on the local news last night that a bus driver in Austin is making $117K. Just throwing it out there, like, what if you really like driving a bus but only get paid $20K. That would suck. But if you like it and can get paid 6 figures then I'd say that would be very cool. I knew a guy in high school who dreamed and talked of nothing but owning and driving his own bug rig. He was a pretty sharp guy, he just wanted his own truck and the open road.

</comment><comment><USER89> The biggest problem with this whole situation is that we, as a society, are forcing people to work when our economy doesn't need them to. If we needed people to work, then the jobs would create themselves. There would be no talk of job creation. It would happen on its own.

And people don't need jobs either. They never did. They need food and money. Jobs just _used to_ be an appropriate way to obtain those things.

</comment><comment><USER90> I think we idealize our jobs. They're stressful and dangerous. Stress, obesity, back, blood circulation and respiratory problems do kill eventually.

Then there is depression, working alone, never going outside.

But hey, you could always become a consultant: travel much, eat badly, work everywhere, ignore ergonomics...

And one more thing, I wouldn't compare myself to the millions of unemployed, or low-wage workers, but to the upper middle class.

</comment><comment><USER91> I think that it is important to separate our understanding of relative exploitation/privilege from notions of structural exploitation/privilege.

two points on this.

firstly, luxury is relative. As workers (I know its unpopular in the US, but I, as a developer, would happily call myself, and other developers 'working class' as long as we are handing over the products of our labor for a wage) we are not earning as much money as our bosses expect to make from the product of our labour, therefore however relatively luxurious our work environment and living standards, we must remember that we are still being exploited. The recent revelations about the silicon valley wage cartel ([http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2014/01/15/silicon_valle...](http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2014/01/15/silicon_valley_hiring_cartel_apple_google_and_other_accused_of_driving_down.html)) show one of the ways in which our wages are kept artificially low.

Secondly, not a critique of your sentiment, but an addendum, there are certain senses that our 'luxurious' jobs are particularly precarious. When labour costs increase the two methods that bosses/capitalists use to maintain a profit are a) employing workers who will accept less and b) automating the work previously don by workers.

More and more we are competing globally for employment, This applies to all industries to some extent (if wages for electronics manufacture get too high in China they will move to Thailand, etc), it is even easier to relocate soft wave developer jobs, as there aren;t the same demands for the movement of physical resources, building new factories, etc.

combine this with the fact that we are constantly creating the 'machines' that will replace us. For example, designing complex web sites is much easier and takes much less work using django, for example, than frm scratch, but that is because django is replacing work that was previously done by workers.

These two methods of keeping labour costs down often combine in the form of deskilling. If we make django do all the tough technical bits we can hire a less experienced worker for less $$.

tl;dr Yes we have 'relatively' luxurious jobs, no that doesn't mean we its not in our interests to get rid of the wage-relation, with all its ridiculous contradictions in an age of plenty as we live in.

</comment><comment><USER92> There are hidden sacrifices and costs. 99% of my good friends in this profession took depression medicine at some point of their lives.

</comment><comment><USER93> Dear Recruiter, You are a middleman. Your job is pointless. Your industry will go "kapoom" soon. Enterprising young people are already figuring our ways to automate you out of your job . Take me off your list. I am not a 'lead', or a 'prospective candidate'. Show me the money. That's what she said. Goodbye.

</comment><comment><USER94> Speak for yourself. I sure as hell am aware of it.

If you want to talk about how ridiculously unaware you were about how good you have it, feel free. But please don't imply that I'm somehow equally dumb.

I do my share of complaining, but I understand that when it comes down to it, I am _extremely_ fortunate when it comes to my job.

</comment><comment><USER95> Most of those recruiters do not deserve to be employed in the first place. They lack basic empathy towards job seekers. They talk like they own you. I have not met any of them yet that does not meet this description unfortunately. I think having some power on other people's lives corrupt them.

</comment><comment><USER96> If you really don't like recruiters, feel free to send them to [http://www.rankarecruiter.co.uk/](http://www.rankarecruiter.co.uk/) \- it's a joke side designed to waste their time, just like they waste ours.

</comment><comment><USER97> Thank you for posting this! I find the Silicon Valley a internally focused place and I think we need more reminders from members of our community that we are the exception and not the rule. Not everyone in the world can be a VC or programmer.

</comment><comment><USER98> Logic fail.

"We have it better than people who don't, therefore we shouldn't complain."

</comment><comment><USER99> "PS: I am available for hire! Feel free to contact me" at the end of the post was a bit ironic.

Otherwise I quite agree with the post, we tech guys have chance to choose our job.

</comment><comment><USER100> There is always someone worse off than you, that doesn't mean your complaints are invalid unless you live in a communist utopia.

</comment><comment><USER101> You can be healthy and happy doing any task - so long as you have balance and support and habits to support you.

</comment><comment><USER102> Is our work really luxurious or just stable, rewarding and fairly renumerated?

</comment><comment><USER103> This is a Facebook post, not an article.

</comment><comment><USER104> Humble brag.

</comment><comment><USER105> "We shouldn't forget that there is life outside our communities." \- yes, let's not forget there are lawyers, doctors, actors, pilots, CEOs and other occupations that earn much more without having to re-learn a new API every year... Let's not forget that major companies in e.g. Silicon Valley are known for actively suppressing the salary growth. IMHO we are still underpaid and under-appreciated.

<comment><USER106> I view the constant learning and changing requirements of careers in software development to be one of its largest advantages and draws over, how I imagine some of those careers you listed are (others like lawyers and doctors I am certain have their own knowledge bases they have to learn constantly). I get to learn a new or modified API, language, or project domain every year if not more frequently, and I love it. You viewing it as 'having to re-learn a new API every year' indicates to me that you view it as a negative.

In regards to the under appreciated part, I also was well aware this wasn't a job like fire fighting or being a doctor where I was going to be appreciated on a daily basis, or even a job like teaching where I would get the occasional student that appreciated me making all the thankless bastards I had to deal with hopefully worth it.

I mean there is no reason you shouldn't try to find a place where you personally don't have to re-learn stuff every year, and are appreciated. But I like learning and being appreciated adds no value to me, I assume at least some others feel the same.

I am always in favor of being paid more, but I would be hard pressed to argue why I should be.

<comment><USER33> The ability to continue learning new things (and also implementing them) over the course of your entire career may be less common than you think.

Doctors and lawyers have a large body of working knowledge that they must learn, but the portion relevant to their specific practice might not change that much over their entire career. Software writers can get started on a tiny corpus of knowledge, but a huge portion of it has to be updated on a nearly constant basis.

It's like accelerating over the entire length of a foot race, except instead of sprinting the 50m dash, you are running an ultramarathon. By the time you retire, you have already forgotten more things than most people have ever bothered to learn.

I have already written software for doctors and nurses, lawyers and paralegals, rocket scientists, aircraft pilots, and other software writers like me. Every job required learning a significant amount of domain knowledge, even if only on a temporary basis. As a result, that quote by Heinlein from Time Enough for Love--the one about specialization being for insects-- definitely applies. I can now convincingly bullshit any non-expert on practically any topic after only about 2 days of Internet research.

That's because I have learned to identify and focus upon the core elements of a problem and discard all irrelevancies. It may be odd to you, since you probably have the same skill now, but the vast majority of humanity is completely incapable of viewing a problem objectively. That is why we are valuable. We are the Professors surrounded by billions of Gilligans. We are the MacGyvers in a world of ticking time bombs. Bunsen and Beeker to a bunch of talking animals. Lisa Simpsons beset by Homers. Farnsworths (and Wernstroms) babysitting Benders and Frys.

That's why we get paid the big bucks.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER107> You're right! We should be paying them to do what we're doing! I've had it all backward!</comment>


Accounting rule changes may allow Apple to offer free iPod touch SW updates - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/09/accounting-rules-change-could-end-ipod-touch-update-fee.ars

<comment><USER2> If it was only because of an accounting rule, why couldn't they charge $0.99 instead of $5/$10.</comment>


Is Quantopian The Next Bloomberg? - <AUTHOR> http://www.forbes.com/sites/petercohan/2013/10/04/is-quantopian-the-next-bloomberg/ <comment><USER2> Having worked for a 700M$ quant investment fund, I'd say, uhem no. It's pretty simple: algo investing doesn't work well or at all. algo trading does. nobody publishes very good algorithms. there are perhaps only 20 very good systems in the world. usually they are statistical arbitrage or HF. these kinds of systems are measured in sharpe ratio and turnover at least once a week. although I've spoken to a 25 year old who managed to make a killing auto- trading an emerging market, but these things don't happen at scale.

also, Bloomberg is in completely different business.

if somebody really wants to work on replacing Bloomberg let me know. this is a huge market, which nobody is working on AFAIK (=~Angellist).

<comment><USER3> How do I get in touch with you?

<comment><USER2> sent an email to the address in your profile

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Revenue per user might be high, but it's targeting a smaller market. Bloomberg is useful to anyone who buys or sells stocks in any way. Quantopian seems to be about people who want to find a technical system to beat the market. This is by its nature self-defeating. If everyone is using Quantopian, everyone cannot be beating the market. The article makes this very point on page two.

<comment><USER5> At the same time, if this is a genuinely useful tool for its intended purpose, there are lots of exit strategy possibilities. It might be worth billions to a single hedge fund.

<comment><USER3> How many hedge funds spend billions on technology?

<comment><USER6> They would if they found tech that gave them a clear edge and it made sense to acquire from an ROI perspective.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I've been lurking on Quantopian for a few months. The algotrading community is secretive. Currently, you code in python which is then saved and run on their servers. I fear Quantopian copying the best trading strategies for their own use. Even if you black box the code, all Quantopian needs is I/O with your program. What's to stop this?

<comment><USER8> We get this question at Quantopian periodically.

You retain ownership of the content you put in our system; everything you write is yours. Your intellectual property remains private and your own. You can read more about our policies in our terms and in our FAQ ([https://www.quantopian.com/faq](https://www.quantopian.com/faq) and [https://www.quantopian.com/policies/terms](https://www.quantopian.com/policies/terms))

Of course, there is no way that we can prove or guarantee that we're not peeking. Like anything else in the cloud, at some point it becomes a matter of trust. That's why we did our About page a bit differently ([https://www.quantopian.com/about](https://www.quantopian.com/about)). We're all startup veterans with reputations in the industry. You can click the links there and find out who we know in LinkedIn, and see what they say about us. We hope that our good reputations make it easier for you to trust us. Of course, that is entirely up to you!

<comment><USER9> Trust can take care concerns of credit card transaction, banking, or privacy. But when it comes to trade secret, intellectual property, trust is irrelevant. If you're working on trust, you're on the wrong path.

Traders need to keep their algo close to themselves. What you can offer is not testing their algo on your platform, but separating the their critical algo from the commodity data mining then offer the latter. The latter is what most traders don't have and you can add value. The ability of separating the algo, might just be your competitive edge.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> Can we please stop posting Forbes contributor articles?

</comment><comment><USER11> I have a fair bit of insight into this world as I work in it and this quote seems abit off.

> Now, 5% of asset managers are algorithmic traders. In a decade, 50% to 70% > of asset managers will use trading algorithms."

It may be true that if you include all mutual and pension funds that only 5% have their own algos, and even that seems very low, its important to note that these funds trade through other brokers like Goldman and Knight capital.

I'd guess that vast majority( > 90%) of trade that they do are done algorithmically whether on a simple VWAP or a more complex "work it" style algos.

Maybe the author meant alpha seeking algos rather than basic order allocation algos?

</comment><comment><USER12> In this space there is also [http://www.quantconnect.com](http://www.quantconnect.com).

As a concept it can take off for sure, but not sure the Bloomberg comparison is fully accurate.

<comment><USER9> In that space, there have been many quant tools/online communities, smartquant, openquant etc., let alone weath-lab, traderstation the old school TA tools, yet none has taken off into mainstream.

In the algo trading field, nobody can beat HF. In the alpha seeking field, it takes much more than trading algo, or a single algo. Complete computerization is not impossible but definitely a very hard problem.

In term of creating a Bloomberg competing model, I'll not entirely build it on algo based. There are numerous cheap highly educated labor out there in the world, outsource it, fill in the gap where data mining is still not good at. Only then, Quantopian will become a sound Bloomberg conteder.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> No.</comment>


You Can Do Research Too - <AUTHOR> http://www.bailis.org/blog/you-can-do-research-too/ <comment><USER2> This is an interesting topic! All advises in the article are really good ones! And I would add couple of points more (from personal experience): use services like Coursera (there will be tests, homework, forums, you may get a chance to work on real problems and solve them); keep connections with your teachers from University and schools - ask them about their projects and life sometimes, try to meet them from time to time, offer them your help.

</comment><comment><USER3> Very encouraging and very true. I have been working on some interesting and hard problems which I set out to solve. In the process I can say I have discovered myself on how to think in various ways about a problem, simultaneously coding, looking at market, research papers, broadening, narrowing, thinking laterally and so on...Its a fantastic journey if one could afford to do it.</comment>


Seven steps to remarkable customer service - <AUTHOR> http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/customerservice.html <comment><USER2> As a former employee of Lands' End, I can attest to the quality of their customer service. (The quality of the internal employee care is less good than it used to be, since back when I started there in 1998, but I could just be bitter after the I/S department layoffs! :-) Anyway, the whole customer service area is saturated in an ethic of serving the customer. It really is amazing. For example, there are no timers on the calls. Ever wonder why some CSR's are so brusk? Well, they're usually trying to beat the clock. If their average call time goes above some magic number (often as low as two or three minutes) then they get written up by their supervisor. No such problem at Lands' End. I had to smile that Joel linked to the OCS (The Online Customer Store where he orders his logo'd shirts). I was one of the lead developers on that project. :-) As for what happens to the returned items? They're sold off in the company employee store for a few dollars. If the company makes stipulations about the use of their logo, then a patch is applied over it, before selling to the employees, to protect the customers brand. As I recall, most customers don't mind.

</comment><comment><USER3> I absolutely agree with his thoughts on the power of admitting fault. It's a matter of taking responsibility for ones self and it shows character. If only everyone took this advice. PS: nice reddit-esque dealio you have going on here :)

<comment><USER4> Most of my life I would have agreed wholeheartedly. I still agree, but it's nuanced now. For the past while I've been growing a property management business on Maui, and I've discovered a demographic that the moment you say anything close to "sorry," you see them transform- they see dollar signs and suddenly they become monsters. We've had to enact a policy at our company- if you ask someone how their stay has been and they say "well, it rained a few of the days," whatever you do, _don't_ say "yah, sorry about that- too bad," even though that's the most natural thing in the world to say. If we ever said sorry to something like that some would immediately demand a refund for their stay (funny as that sounds). Only apologize for things that really are your fault. "Sorry, my fault" are magical words only when they are true (both parts). Turns out pretty much every hotel and property management in Hawaii has a "black list"\- customers who they will not give a room to. Thankfully it doesn't happen nearly as often in tech. Corollary: trust your customer.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> A bit of a different perspective to some of what Joel wrote. http://positivesharing.com/2006/07/why-the-customer-is-always-right-results- in-bad-customer-service)

<comment><USER6> Yeah, but I think Joel's main point was not to outsource customer service people. There's definitely something to be said for working for someone who gives you the trust and freedom to make independent decisions, even when that means losing a customer (as someone who used to bartend, I was happy to get rid of a few) but if you're not close to the company than there's just no way that can work.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Is it just me or is this is a really long way of saying "be nice to people"?

</comment><comment><USER4> The first item is a verbose way of saying "Six Sigma."</comment>


It's Time to Kill the $100 Bill - <AUTHOR> https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/02/16/its-time-to-kill-the-100-bill/ <comment><USER2> People in ivory towers apparently do not understand crime very well.

Once the physical density of gold is greater than the physical density of currency, criminals who want to move lots of money at once will simply use gold bars. IIRC, at $3000/oz gold is more dense than $100 bills; if $50 is the maximum denomination this would be closer to $1500; with $20 bills it is already more dense.

The motivation behind this flavor of screed is not crime prevention anyhow... it is to reduce the availability of physical cash so that central banks can freely implement negative interest rate policy without risk of people eschewing banks "paying" them negative interest by moving their savings and investments into cash.

<comment><USER3> While the density of cash is certainly useful, using cash brings all of the benefits of having your wealth denominated in a state backed currency, instead of a commodity whose prices is more heavily driven by supply and demand.

Oh, also how the hell are you going to spend your gold? Black markets and crime must interface with the rest of the world at some point, so you're going to have to change your gold to cash, which is now just a choke point for your operation to get pressured at. There aren't a lot of businesses that take in gold and output money which makes laundering difficult.

But you're right. These arguments are almost certainly not primarily motivated by crime prevention.

<comment><USER2> I agree with what you're saying, cash has many benefits... I was just diffusing the ridiculous crime argument.

As for laundering gold into digital currency, I doubt that would be too difficult for a criminal enterprise to set up. There are actually a TON of business that take gold and output money... refiners, pawn shops, jewelry stores... and let's not forget that HSBC recently had to pay massive fines for laundering drug money - and they are the custodian of the GLD ETF

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> The title is incorrect, it says "It's time to kill the $100 bill" rather than "It's time to kill the 500 eur note", in light of yesterday's ECB vote (reported by Handelsblatt) to ban the 500 eur note.

<comment><USER5> Did they ever come up with any evidence that the 500 note was misused?

<comment><USER6> i think there was a measurement of the number in circulation vs how often they were seen, not super scientific but there certainly are a huge number of them in circulation, with little visibility, although this may just be due to their use being confined to certain areas such as casinos etc, not much point taking one to the local shop for a pint of milk.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> Please don't, I hold all my savings in $100 and eur500 bills. The local currency in my country is freefalling so it's the only way to preserve my hard-earned money.

</comment><comment><USER8> The attack on cash is simply the end-game in the state-bank collaboration to control society. Eliminate cash and you can more effectively steal depositors' money through negative interest rates.

And you don't need large bills to facilitate large-scale criminal activity, e.g. HSBC[1].

[1] [http://www.worldfinance.com/banking/hsbc-sued-for- laundering...](http://www.worldfinance.com/banking/hsbc-sued-for-laundering- cartel-money)

</comment><comment><USER9> Surprise - a central banker[1] wants to have more control over how people use our currency. Summers seems to be discounting the value of large denomination bills as a savings vehicle for ordinary citizens in countries with weak currencies. In addition to improving the life of your average (e.g.) Venezuelan, keeping the US Government associated with financial stability seems to be a cheap and effective way to promote pro-Americanism. My guess would be that the positive value of $100s far outweighs the value of inconveniencing criminals, but if it's the other way around then the proposal might be worth considering.

[1] Basically

</comment><comment><USER10> Please change the title as this is about the $100 note. The "Benjamins" make up 76% of the US currency in circulation:

[http://econbrowser.com/archives/2013/04/who_is_holding](http://econbrowser.com/archives/2013/04/who_is_holding)

Summers can say that this is all about criminals and tax evaders, but everyone should remember that if the government and fed want to impose negative interest rates on individual's savings then they have to eliminate cash or use some other unsavory techniques. This is a first step in that direction.

</comment><comment><USER11> As a citizen of the world, this is a ridiculous idea that I hope never happens.

As an entrepreneur, I'm thankful the government continues to create such wonderful market opportunities.

</comment><comment><USER12> Killing the €500 note won't make a lot of difference while there's a CHF1000 note in circulation.

</comment><comment><USER13> Cash has become this dirty thing everyone hates in the last decade. Any purchase over a hundred bucks or so a store clerk or normal person seems to have this awkwardness about them in accepting it. It's not uncommon to see people pay for a candy bar with a credit card.

I think there was at some point a feeling that it was safer, but with the sheer number of card theft rings via POS systems, shady small merchants, etc., I've taken to trying to always have about 100 USD on me at all times.

Also, the article's assertion that cash = terrorism did not surprise me at all. Why is it anything done outside of the all seeing eye must automatically be associated with terrorism?

<comment><USER14> > Why is it anything done outside of the all seeing eye must automatically be > associated with terrorism?

Never bother to examine a folly, ask what does it accomplish.

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> On the other hand, countries like Austria are affirming the right to purchase items in cash. It's only time to kill the $100 bill if you're ready to give up the last bit of privacy one has left.

And really, I expect an actual argument, not: "The fact that — as Sands points out — in certain circles the 500 euro note is known as the "Bin Laden" confirms the arguments against it." I'm just appalled at the stupidity of this meaningless statement. By this reasoning, we should destroy all {insert disliked things here} because in some circles, they are known as {insert negative connotation here}.

What a poor article written by an obvious idiot.

<comment><USER16> Actually, it was called a Bin Laden in Spain at least because it was difficult to find one.

I've also read once that probably 50% of 500€ notes were in Spain, due to the high corruption levels hence all the bribery and untaxed payments. Even the party in government has been caught (actually it is the most corrupt party by far, as far as we know).

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> If the govt keeps "printing" credit-money it won't be long before the $100 note replaces the $1 note anyway. I am opposed to this plan but I do support dropping the penny, round all prices to the nearest 5c.

</comment><comment><USER17> I really like the 500€ bill when travelling. It`s much easier to sew a 500€ bill to my belt (for emergencies) than five 100 EUR bills. The difference in thickness is substantial.

</comment><comment><USER18> > He is surely right that illicit activities are facilitated when a million > dollars weighs 2.2 pounds as with the 500 euro note rather than more than 50 > pounds as would be the case if the $20 bill was the high denomination note.

Do they want for terrorism to get cheaper? Prices are mostly dictated by affluence of the consumer. Terrorists don't require million dollars for given service, they just won't ask for less if that's how much the customer can comfortably provide.

</comment><comment><USER19> Kind of funny thinking about optimal counterfeiting targets.

Japan has a 500 yen coin (about $4.50 today) with many strong anti-counterfeit properties, so much so that the BOJ has been contracted by other Asian countries to make its coins as well.

But 10000 yen notes (roughly $95) are super used in Japan too, so would that become the next target in a non-USD/EUR counterfeit land? Maybe external demand for Yen could trigger yet some more deflation.

</comment><comment><USER4> The author calls for killing $100 bills, which is 80% of cash in circulation. Which is a theme lately, culminating in yesterday's ECB vote to ban the 500 eur note:

\- Bloomberg: Bring on the cashless future [1]

\- FT: The benefits of scrapping cash [2]

\- Bloomberg: Europol Director Sees Case for Scrapping High-Value Banknotes [3]

\- Handelsblatt: The death of cash [4]

\- Norway's Biggest Bank Calls For Country To Stop Using Cash [5]

\- Spiegel: Leading German Economist Calls For Cash Ban [6]

\- Bloomberg: Citi Economist Says It's Time to Abolish Cash [7]

\- Telegraph: Bank Of England Chief Economist Calls For Cash Ban, Urges Negative Rates [8]

And from a Morgan Stanley presentation, in which its head of EMEA equity research Huw van Steenis, points out [9]:

"What I learned at Davos: We should move quickly to a cashless economy so that we could introduce negative rates well below 1% - policy maker"

..adding: "One of the most surprising comments this year came from a closed session on fintech where I sat next to someone in policy circles who argued that we should move quickly to a cashless economy so that we could introduce negative rates well below 1% – as they were concerned that Larry Summers' secular stagnation was indeed playing out and we would be stuck with negative rates for a decade in Europe. They felt below (1.5)% depositors would start to hoard notes, leading to yet further complexities for monetary policy."

[1] [http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2016-01-31/bring-on- th...](http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2016-01-31/bring-on-th..).

[2] [http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/8ef4dcb0-ca6f-11e5-be0b-b7ece4e...](http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/8ef4dcb0-ca6f-11e5-be0b-b7ece4e..).

[3] [http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-08/high- value...](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-08/high-value..).

[4] [https://global.handelsblatt.com/edition/354/ressort/finance/...](https://global.handelsblatt.com/edition/354/ressort/finance/..).

[5] [http://www.ibtimes.com/norways-biggest-bank-calls-country- st...](http://www.ibtimes.com/norways-biggest-bank-calls-country-st..).

[6] [http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/soziales/bargeld-peter- bofi...](http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/soziales/bargeld-peter-bofi..).

[7] [http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-10/citi- econo...](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-10/citi-econo..).

[8] [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/bank-of- england/11874061/...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/bank-of- england/11874061/..).

[9] [https://imgur.com/qnEwiha](https://imgur.com/qnEwiha)</comment>


Pervasive Foreshock Activity Across Southern California - <AUTHOR> https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/2019GL083725 <comment><AUTHOR> Popular article on this research...

title: Groundbreaking earthquake catalog may have just solved a seismic mystery

gutter: Lab-made quakes suggested that we should see hints of activity before a big event, but this pattern has been elusive in nature—until now.

url: [https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2019/08/earthquak...](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2019/08/earthquakes- groundbreaking-catalog-solved-seismic-mystery-foreshocks-southern-california/)</comment>


CoffeeScript Object Notation parser - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/bevry/cson

<comment><USER2> This project needs more attention.

I also feel that it might need to become it's standard.

For now, though, the parser relies on the CoffeeScript interpreter, and the JavaScript eval call. Any code from the superset of CSON--that is, the CoffeeScript language itself--should be seen as an error. But instead, in a lot of cases, it will still be parsed, and evaluated, as usual.</comment>


Microsoft admitted to private Linux developer security list - <AUTHOR> https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-admitted-to-private-linux-developer-security-list/ <comment><USER2> When reading the title (which for some reason is cut off thus saying: "Microsoft admitted to private Linux developer security li") I thought Microsoft was up to it's old antics again.

Somehow I am dissatisfied that it isn't. I guess Microsoft is now one of the "good guys" since they don't focus on consumer market anymore.

<comment><USER3> Considering their work on Azure and WSL, MS is a major contributor to the Kernel and one of the larger distributions.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Should have a warning, autoplay video/audio.

<comment><USER4> Isn't it fairly standard for browsers to pause the autoplaying videos?</comment></comment>


Twitter Bootstrap's Undocumented Mixins - ely-s http://ely-s.github.io/mixin/

<comment><AUTHOR> Is it really that hard to navigate to the source? [https://github.com/twitter/bootstrap/blob/master/less/mixins...](https://github.com/twitter/bootstrap/blob/master/less/mixins.less)

If you are using LESS, you are probably capable of looking at Twitter Bootstrap's LESS files to find them.

<comment><USER2> I found the synopsis view incredibly helpful.

<comment> ely-s I'm glad you find this useful.</comment></comment></comment>


Does cold calling make you appear desperate? - <AUTHOR> http://www.jslogan.com/blog/40-blog/585-does-making-a-cold-call-mean-youre-desperate

<comment><USER3> Cold calling is one of the best mechanisms for customer aquisition - <USER2> B2B or B2C - you can do if you've got the stomach for it.

If you haven't seen JigSaw.com that's one of the most valuable (and yes a very questionable business model!) resources for B2B - makes it a piece of cake to get directly in touch with company VPs etc.</comment>


Podcasts for Entrepreneurs – Episode Directory - <AUTHOR> https://podboxer.com/explore-episodes <comment><USER2> One of my favorite resources to discover interesting podcasts around different topics! Thanks for making this.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the feedback.</comment></comment>


Bare Bones Software Celebrates BBEdit's 25th Anniversary - <AUTHOR> http://www.barebones.com/company/press/bbedit_25_anniversary.html <comment><USER2> First thing I install on every Mac I've owned since 1995. Thanks Rich!

</comment><comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for not sucking :)</comment>