this post was submitted on 28 Mar 2024
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No Stupid Questions

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(page 3) 39 comments
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[–] [email protected] 41 points 7 months ago

We've been tricked into thinking either that hard work pays off or this specific hard work thing will pay off. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. But all the time it leads to more work.

My expert psychoanalysis of your entire personality based on a one sentence post is either you're happy where you are, or you're afraid of change.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (8 children)

IDK why people become managers, either, when the pay often isn't reflected in the increased responsibility. Plenty of jobs I had, the managers got paid the same minimum wage as everyone below them, while having to do a lot more work. I have no problem with the responsibility, as long as I'm properly compensated for it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

For me I knew being a manager would be much harder, but my passion is mentoring others and watching them grow.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Some people become managers because they like having control over people.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago

And those are the people you need to avoid being managed by.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

I don't like it when I don't have some challenges or goals in life, I don't like feeling like I'm just coasting along. I'll try a new sport etc so I have a project, and I do a bit of volunteer work towards getting people involved in sports I do.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago (5 children)

I dunno man. Would be too much hassle for me. I'm in my 30s and struggle not falling into depression every time I get friend zoned, which happens all the time. Dating sucks. I just want to be loved. Having children, being a manager (especially in my field / NGO where politics is a big part of the job) is just way too stressful.

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[–] [email protected] -2 points 7 months ago

Because they're lost or miserable or searching for purpose and keep trying to find it in external things like career advancement or kids or partners or something.

[–] [email protected] 83 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Mate, I'd definitely prefer loose leaf tea but can't be arsed with the extra hassle

There are dozens of us

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[–] [email protected] -1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

You may be a perfectionist who's so afraid of failure that it currently (rationally or irrationally) outweighs the motivation to succeed by a significant margin. You'd like to do some bigger things in life but you self-sabotage by distracting yourself because the thought of actually doing things is way too scary / stressful.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago

Armchair therapist much? To me the examples given in the post specifically aren't about success, they're about the things people that do not directly count as success but that do require you to devote at least part of your life to it.

[–] [email protected] 74 points 7 months ago

As long as you feel you want to avoid responsibilities, please do so in a responsible way. Use condoms every time, and don't get involved with a person who wants children. Be a good support-player at work so your manager doesn't have to be a bitch (they still might, in which case support your coworkers). And contribute in low-effort ways like donating an occasional pint of blood if you're eligible, or offering to put someone else's cart away at the grocery store. Just being a decent person is enough.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Doing charity doesn't require increased responsibility. That was an unexpected item on your list.

Note that many pregnancies are unplanned. So you can frame it as a one-off choice, but often the reality is that the choice is a reaction to reality. Having a kid or having an abortion, either of those requires responsibility of some kind. In other words, the responsibility was inevitable.

Finally, depending where you live and how wealthy you are, you might want to plan for retirement. Failure to do could make your life highly stressful in thirty-five years. Taking small actions now is actually a stress reliever for many people. In other words, some actions that increase responsibility actually make life more enjoyable even in the short run and certainly in the medium run.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Doing charity doesn't require increased responsibility.

In my experience, it does. I used to do some charity work for Ukrainian refugees: delivering medicine, helping with warehousing, buying suitcases for those who want to go further. That's not an easy one, and it has hella pressure on you, basically because these people do not have a lot of people who would help them.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Indeed. You've given us an example showing that charity works could involve increased responsibility, but certainly not that it is required.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 7 months ago (4 children)

The ability to “strive” is a learned skill that needs to be honed over years. It’s not really natural to most people — it’s easy to fall into a low-energy state and want to stay there because it’s comfortable. It takes practice and energy putting yourself out there and putting an effort into making more of your life.

If you’re happy with who you are and what you’re doing, then I’m not going to neg on your life. But are you going to spend the next ~50 years just gliding along, and not creating or building any value for yourself in this world (and that doesn’t have to be monetary value — building a family, and building up your community through volunteer works build value as well)? When you’re in the twilight of your life, do you want to look back and find you did nothing of significance with your life?

Maybe that doesn’t bother you. That’s fine. Just so long as 15 years from now you’re not some bitter middle-aged person complaining about people in the upper-middle class who get to do things you don’t get to do and who have more money and nice things that you do.

But none of that would be for me. So I put in the work, learned how to strive for the life I wanted, and got a graduate degree, built a beautiful family, got that management job (and the pay that goes with it), and spend my spare time volunteering (currently) with three different organizations. It’s a busy life and take a lot of time and energy — but it allows me to have people around me who love me, with the money to do and own nice things together, and to give back to my community to make it a better place. And when my time eventually comes, I’ll have hopefully left this world a little better off for the effort.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

Different people find joys in different things (some people get more out of charity than they put in)... and different people have a different capacity for stress and energy.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Everyone values different things. Personally, I'm not quite ready for kids (even though I'm past the age where my parents had kids and some of my friends/colleagues my age have kids, I'm about your age), but I'm ready to take on more at work. I find it rewarding and I can make more money. And although money doesn't create happiness, it buys some dope shit. And not advancing at work just gets boring and repetitive. Ig it's like that urban legend about sharks needing to swim...

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 7 months ago (1 children)

There as a time when you were very young that tying your shoes was impossible for you. For a time, your parents tied your shoes for you. Then you learned how, with difficulty, to do it yourself. Within a short time you mastered it and you don't even think about it now. You simply benefit from having tied shoes without having to ask anyone. Somewhere out there is a person that doesn't know how to tie their own shoes asking why people learned to do so for themselves, where you have that answer for yourself.

Others around you see benefits to raising children, the challenge and pay of rising in job role, or the noble contribution of doing charity work bettering others/society. For you, you don't see any of the benefits to yourself that come from those thing. Yet those other people learned to tie their shoes themselves too. You are like them in that they had the desire to better themselves in that small way because you all saw a benefit.

It sounds like the question before you is to examine your life, decide if there is anything you want in it that you don't have, and work a path to getting that. The one further thing I would recommend is don't just look at your life as it is now at age 30. Imagine your life at 35,40, 50, 65, and 80. With the versions of yourself at those ages be satisfied with the person you are today with what you know and have? Will you, at some distant year, be sad that you passed on an opportunity to have something else in your life you don't have today? If so, its up to you, today, to make the choices that will eventually make you into the person you want to be for that distant age.

Only you can answer this question and there is no wrong answer as long as you are true to yourself and have properly explored yourself and the world to properly answer this question.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Pretty sure he’s asking for a reason. The reason you learn to tie your shoes are obvious; time savings and independence.

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[–] [email protected] 54 points 7 months ago (1 children)

They aren't thinking of it in terms of increasing responsibility. That is the cost of the decisions they are making, but it's not the benefit. Each of the things you mentioned have clear benefits (pay raise, biological drive, altruism). They are simply making decisions about when the benefits outweigh the costs.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (3 children)

I became a manager because I worked with shitty managers who sit on their ass and promote their friends. I wanted to change that.

I take on harder projects than my peers because I can handle it. It's easier for me to deal with the stress, than give it to a teammate who would absolutely struggle and lose 4 weekends trying to solve it.

I became a parent because I worked in the school system and taught kids without good families. I used to stay after school just to give these kids a positive influence before they get sent back to their shitty home.

I absolutely do not think about the stress of the added work, but instead focus on the results of my actions (or the results if I don't do it).

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[–] [email protected] 245 points 7 months ago (3 children)

I had a buddy, and we talked in great detail about this. I chase challenges, and am always looking for the next big puzzle to muddle my way through. He chased freedom. He just wanted to be who he was and spend his time how he wanted.

My point is people are motivated by different things. Find your thing and pursue it. Don't worry what anyone else is doing. You don't answer to them, and they're not any happier than you.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 7 months ago

The caveat is don't conflate freedom/motivation with being a dick. Live the life that you want to live, but if that involves disparaging certain demographics for ethically and/or morally wrong reasons, then maybe live a better life than the one you really want to live. This doesn't apply to most people, but there are some out there that should read it and take it to heart.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 7 months ago

Living your authenticity is fulfilling.

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[–] [email protected] 54 points 7 months ago (2 children)

I am the same and find that life is enough for me as it is. I'm also on the spectrum so it's easier to not burden myself unnecessarily.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 7 months ago

Exactly! Compared to what neurotypical people are capable of, I truly do feel disabled in some ways. However, as long as I can continue to support myself and my partner until we both die, I’ll be good without all the extra bullshit and responsibilities.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 7 months ago (4 children)

My ADHD plays a huge part in the opposite direction. I have had hundreds of different hobbies or interests. Each hold my attention for a while and then I rotate to the next.

What I have learned to do is make hobbies or projects interrelated and each supports the next. CAD work supports my 3D printing, which supports all the rest, as an example. Tools purchased need to have multiple uses and other supplies the same. Essentially, I have constructed a huge feedback loop for my natural tendency to bounce around.

While that stuff keeps me busy, I am learning to simplify the rest of my life, so that is nice.

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