trcollinson

I have a wonderful colleague who has a PhD in mathematics and never tells anyone about it. I sort of love calling him Dr. just to push his buttons because he is the opposite of a person who guides others attention to his work. He often deserves so much more credit.

Oh! The tubes from Cento, which is a particular good brand, are metal. I understand the acidic substance from plastic concern. Though reducing your own is a good idea as well. If you grow the tomatoes they will be significantly better.

They make lovely squeezable tubes. I would suggest giving them a try! They are much better.

Wait... You wrote it with him? Are you Dave Bayer? That's amazing! What was it like working together? And absolutely fantastic paper! I have so many questions lol

You make a great point and one thing I posted a bit further down was when I was a director level I did a really poor job of leading by example when it came to vacation. I would literally force people to use their pto and I didn't and they would feel weird or bad. I should have been more like your VP.

I don't disagree. And I mean this much more generally, I have worked quite a long time for quite a lot of companies. The amount of PTO that is given up, which I was privy to, was staggering.

The interesting thing is I used to try to force people who worked for me to take more time off and they would complain. I think in many ways it was the example I set, which was bad, of always working. It's a regret I honestly have. I'm also happy now that I am just an individual contributor. I don't have to try to change that culture anymore. I only need to change me.

I guess my point on vacation is more around the culture of using it. As a senior level engineer/architect with maybe a small team leading role, when was the last time you took a solid 2 week off without anyone calling you for work? Heck, look at the number of unlimited PTO companies out there where employees never take a day. Just as an example.

The experience my friends have in the EU seems to be pretty good over all with healthcare. The US healthcare system give fantastic results at a phenomenal and often strange price. It's a trade-off I'm sure.

I agree that having savings helps. And I have quite a bit of savings. But I still wouldn't feel comfortable being laid off .

Over all I'm here in the US and I love it. But I'm pointing out that there is give and take to everywhere.

Also everyone keeps talking about working for FAANG but.... The vast majority of US engineers don't work for them.

I am a W2 employee for a consulting firm. They pay me a salary with some benefits and some vacation time and bill be out to clients.

I'd say it's a cultural thing why we don't use it. Working hard and making big money is the dream. I'm not saying my company forces me to not take the vacation time. Heck they try to tell us all to use it more! (PTO is a liability on the books, FYI). But culturally, it's just not a priority (as in our countries culture, not the company itself). I realize it makes no sense. I need to make it more of a priority. My original point is my friends who are ex-pats on the EU seem to have a culture of using that time being more important than working.

Edit: I'm not sure why I'm being down voted. I'm mostly sharing what I see and feel. Your milage definitely may vary and I hope it does!

I'm pretty much at the top end of the salary range where I live. I don't make an extra $150,000. I make a sizable amount. But outside of a few niche places and a few niche companies in those places, people aren't making an extra $150,000 in the US.

I make pretty good money as a consultant. Last year I had 180 hours of saved vacation time (4.5 weeks). I gave up 115.5 hours of that on January 1 because I didn't use it. I expect I will lose a similar amount on next January 1st. I did get 6 federal holidays off. I used a bit of vacation to also take the day after Thanksgiving, the day before Christmas, and New Year's Eve off.

I paid $8400 in insurance premiums for my insurance. I also added $5200 in pretax to my HSA account which I used.

I paid about 30% to taxes.

I'm not complaining. I'd just like to point out that my high salary (which is not > $200,000) comes with some costs.

Do you mean a particular part of Europe? I only ask because there are more factors than salary. I have friends who have moved to work in France, Norway, and Germany. They do make markedly less than I do on my US salary. However, they also get:

* Substantially more actual vacation time

* Substantially cheaper and yet similar health, dental, and vision coverage

* Less risk/stress associated with job security

* A very similar job market

I don't imagine this is the same in every country in the EU, just as technical job markets are different in the US. But working in the US Tech Sector isn't the panacea of work related issues.

Does it bother you so much that he would put in a link that had an affiliate? I doubt he was trying to hide anything nefarious. I am linked to a few affiliates and when I share a link, it has the affiliate tag in it. He uses a great laptop, he shared it, you can look or not. I doubt he was trying to save HN bandwidth or storage.

> "alternating with short bouts of motivation"

I think you might have pinned it here. It may be that you are just fine as a developer but that you have burn out or some other mental health issue honestly. I don't mean that as a negative. I was burned out very badly a few years back and I felt exactly like you describe. It led to anxiety, depression, a lack of motivation, pain... nearly a mental breakdown.

I had been on a bit of anxiety medication for a while. I had a near breakdown (some would say a total breakdown). My doctor literally said "You need to go see a therapist. I mean it. You can either go on your own or I am locking you into the trunk of my car and taking you and you won't be let out until you talk to someone." (So, my doctor threatened to kidnap me, and thank goodness!) So I went and talk to a therapist. And talked. And talked so more. For months, then years. It has changed my life for the better. I am a better developer. I work better. I am a better husband and father. I FEEL better.

I really can't recommend highly enough that you take a look into your mental health. It will help a lot. So what now? Talk to a professional.

The problem I have with it, and I would imagine a good percentage of people who frequent Hacker News, is that I know how to build websites, and Wix, Squarespace, etc. just slow me down more than speed me up. Some of this may be psychological. But I feel like no matter what was built, this would be the case.

For example, my son was required to use one of these builders to make a site for his English class over the weekend. He wanted to connect up a simple link in the homepage to an about me page. Simple, in a static website this would be an <a> with appropriate href and such. But with a site builder you had to know which box to go to. You had to have already made the about me page so that the site builder knew how to link up. Etc etc etc. A task that takes me 3 seconds took 10 minutes.

Additionally, as someone who works for companies for a living, I get calls from potential clients that say "I want my Squarespace to do X, Y, and Z, and Squarespace doesn't let me do it. Can you make it do it?" Well, no. I can build you a site that does that, but I can't make Squarespace do something it doesn't do.

These site builders aren't bad at all. Non-technical people use them successfully all of the time. But I am definitely not your target audience.