this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2024
750 points (99.0% liked)
Greentext
4430 readers
1187 users here now
This is a place to share greentexts and witness the confounding life of Anon. If you're new to the Greentext community, think of it as a sort of zoo with Anon as the main attraction.
Be warned:
- Anon is often crazy.
- Anon is often depressed.
- Anon frequently shares thoughts that are immature, offensive, or incomprehensible.
If you find yourself getting angry (or god forbid, agreeing) with something Anon has said, you might be doing it wrong.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I was in a position like this once. The first two or three months were great. TBH, I mostly played video games and cleaned the house. It felt like free money. By the six month mark, I quit to go to something else. It's surprising how mentally draining it is to just do nothing.
I think I took two things away from that experience: One, I think people generally have an innate need to produce something. We don't want to just sit around and entertain ourselves, we want to contribute. Two, I think the 40 hour work week isn't quite the right balance. Maybe 30 would be better.
Gah, a 4-day work week would be wonderful. I might actually work on my side projects.
Eh, I have kids, so I already have enough mental drain w/o my full-time job, so I think I'd end up catching up on things I've been putting off, like exercise, repairs around the house, etc.
In fact, I lost my job at the start of COVID and didn't start looking for a few months because nobody was hiring. I got so much stuff done around the house, and I was able to essentially home-school my kids at the end of one school year and the beginning of the next. I really enjoyed that, and I would totally homeschool my kids if I didn't need to work every day to pay the bills.
So yeah, I'd absolutely appreciate a 30-ish hour work week, especially if I got one whole day off instead of it being spread across 5-days.
In your case your productivity is spend around your house and kids and not on jobs, in OOP's case they spend their time consume. I know i can take the latter but only for a day or two, but i'll definitely shift to the former soon after.
Even if I didn't have kids, I'd have plenty of things to do with my SO: hiking, traveling, cooking, etc. "Productivity" has a lot of forms, and many of them aren't marketable at all, so I really don't think I'd need to look for a job if I didn't need the pay.
If you're single and/or your friends/SO all still work, then yeah, I imagine you'd get pretty bored after a month or so. But if you already have a lot of fulfilling things you'd like to do but don't have time for, I think not working could work out pretty well.
My brother didn't get married until about 40yo and had a fantastic job (made it to VP level as an actuary), so he made way more than he could spend. He ended up being able to retire around the time he got married, and he inherited 3 kids (she's a widow). He's been retired for several years now and still finds plenty of things to keep himself occupied. He could totally work if he wanted, there's just other things taking his time.
Everyone is different. For some people, work is the most fulfilling thing, which is why we'll see many very wealthy people working into their 70s (or 90s for Warren Buffett). For others, relationships are more important, so they quit as soon as they have enough. And for others, various hobbies fill that spot. So it really depends on what gives your life meaning.
For me, it's my SO and kids, followed by FOSS. So if I didn't have to work, I'd spend more time on those, not look for another job.
It's good to learn from experiences, but it's not good to assume that your experience is everyone's experience.