I think the primary reason that people here are so negative about it is that they personally aren't living authentically, that is to say true to themselves. If you're not living authentically yourself, an encounter with authenticity in someone else will bring up bad feelings, and so the default response will be to come up with all sorts of reasons to shame the other person.
This was one of the best things I've read on Medium. I liked the writing, I liked the emotion, I liked the imagery, and I liked the self-reflection. It's true that stories of angst over leaving the corporate world are nothing new, but the execution was good. It was particularly interesting to hear about her experience at Google in that light, given their cachet as the be-all and end-all of big corporate tech employers.
She's lucky she's able to listen and respond to her intuition about what's right for her personally. One of the great tragedies of Western society is that consumerism is encouraged over the pursuit of meaningful work.
> I think the primary reason that people here are so negative about it is that they personally aren't living authentically, that is to say true to themselves. If you're not living authentically yourself, an encounter with authenticity in someone else will bring up bad feelings, and so the default response will be to come up with all sorts of reasons to shame the other person.
Not really. I didn't read as far to get to the part about authenticity. It's just not the kind of content I expect to find at the top of Hacker News. Many others probably feel the same way.
And please don't bring up the guideline about what is appropriate content for this site. That guideline can be used to encompass pretty much anything.
> Please don't submit comments complaining that a submission is inappropriate for the site. If you think something is spam or offtopic, flag it by going to its page and clicking on the "flag" link. (Not all users will see this; there is a karma threshold.) If you flag something, please don't also comment that you did.
I honestly hoped it was something about leaving Google as a customer. For example, in the past week, there was an article about Google stating that email stored on Google's servers isn't "private". I hoped there would be other, relatively technical, reasons behind a "break-up" with Google.
That's why I clicked the link. I still think it belongs on HN because it's something readers here would probably be interested in (not me though).
I wasn't expecting anything specific, I clicked it because it was at the top. There have been many "Why I left [Big Corp]" in the past, subconsciously I was expecting something like that, or at least not a motivational speech.
Uh, no. I think they're identifying her for what she is. Immature. She's coming from a perspective where the world owes her a fulfilling career. Mature people think about changing themselves, not blaming their situation.
Actually, mature people think about bringing themselves into harmony with their situation. That usually involves both changing yourself and your situation. And I think that's what she's doing here.
Simply changing yourself is a stop-gap measure: most people find out that it doesn't actually work long-term, because you can't actually change your true self. You can change your surface behavior, but if those conflict with your deeply-held values, those are going to leak through in times of stress, and you won't be able to do your job effectively. It's better to put yourself in a position where your values and your actions are in harmony: that's why they call it living with "integrity".
No, quite the opposite - she feels that the world/everyone around her said that she needs to make the most of her talents by working hard and then getting the most high-paying job. This is a fairly common feeling among "high-achievers", and sooner or later they all have an epiphany that what the world thinks is good for them is not necessarily what makes them happy. That epiphany is itself a fairly standard cultural trope which crops up (in other guises) in many a superhero movie.
I think you're right. Lots of that kind of resistance amongst us humans. (Climate-change denying e.g.) As my sainted grandmother's graduation card put it:
More simply, the only ones that should care about this post are the people who knows her. I don't see here any depth, any earth shattering conclusions or space for parallels with the tragedies of society in the first world.
Again, simply, she matured over time the decision that that place was not right for her, she didn't care about having a career in a big corporation. Just build an alternative and move on, you are not the only one going through this, don't over think/over analyse it. That's what i would have told her.
This was one of the best things I've read on Medium. I liked the writing, I liked the emotion, I liked the imagery, and I liked the self-reflection. It's true that stories of angst over leaving the corporate world are nothing new, but the execution was good. It was particularly interesting to hear about her experience at Google in that light, given their cachet as the be-all and end-all of big corporate tech employers.
She's lucky she's able to listen and respond to her intuition about what's right for her personally. One of the great tragedies of Western society is that consumerism is encouraged over the pursuit of meaningful work.