Movieclips
7 HN mentions · mentioned in 6 months, 2023–2025
3:05 · 3.9M views · Jul 22, 2021
A movie clip from The Gambler (2014) in which John Goodman's character explains to Mark Wahlberg's the idea of having enough money to tell anyone to go to hell. The relevant part is the first 45 seconds.
Linked in career and burnout threads as shorthand for the freedom financial independence gives you.
7 comments from Hacker News
No. Burnout has one and only one reason - the lack of courage or resources to say “no”. No company can make you overwork yourself. The worse they can do is fire you [1]. Yes I know most people need a job. But don’t put yourself in a position where you need your current job. I have worked for 30 years across 10 jobs everything from lifestyle companies, startups, medium size companies, boring old large enterprise companies and BigTech and currently full time as a staff architect at a third party cloud consulting company. Never once have I been stressed or experienced anything close to burn out because I was always prepared to look for another job. Being prepared means having a strong network, living below your means, saving money, keeping your skills in sync with the market, and being interview ready. I respond to every reputable recruiter whether I am looking or not. Also whatever you do, don’t be a ticket taker. Before you say you don’t make enough to save, if you make a standard developer wage (not BigTech wages) and you have 3-5 years of experience, you are probably making twice the median wage in your area. I don’t do side projects and never have. I close my computer when I get off work. I exercise consistently and religiously and have since I was 15 in 1990. I prioritize spending time with family and friends for my mental health In other words, work toward a position of f%%% you. this video And before anyone says I don’t know what looking for a job is like these days, I was
The question is, with that can money in the bank and your expenses so low, you are already living in a position of f%%% you ( this video ), how were you experiencing burnout? You close your computer after you put in 40 hours a week and go home. You try your best to communicate in trade offs between time, budget and requirements and if that doesn’t work and you get fired for refusing to be overworked, why do you care? I’ve been working for 30 years from startups, to boring enterprise companies, to BigTech and now working as a staff consultant for a third party cloud consulting company. Never once have I experienced burn out. Not because I’m special, I’m disciplined enough to say “no”, have savings (nowhere near what you have), and I’m always prepared to get another job - yes during the dot com bust, the 2008 recession and twice since 2023. I’m not in a position where I don’t have to work. But I am in a position where I can say no to bullshit - being overworked, mistreated, being forced to return to office, say “no” to high pressure BigTech opportunities, etc. In your position? I would travel (well I do that a lot now including nomadding), enjoy life, work for a risky startup that will probably under pay you but you might enjoy it and worse case you can walk away, volunteer, etc
"Jim Bennett: I've been up two and a half million dollars. Frank: What you got on you? Jim Bennett: Nothing. Frank: What you put away? Jim Bennett: Nothing. Frank: You get up two and a half million dollars, any asshole in the world knows what to do: you get a house with a 25 year roof, an indestructible Jap-economy shitbox, you put the rest into the system at three to five percent to pay your taxes and that's your base, get me? That's your fortress of fucking solitude. That puts you, for the rest of your life, at a level of fuck you. Somebody wants you to do something, fuck you. Boss pisses you off, fuck you! Own your house. Have a couple bucks in the bank. Don't drink. That's all I have to say to anybody on any social level. Did your grandfather take risks? Jim Bennett: Yes. Frank: I guarantee he did it from a position of fuck you. A wise man's life is based around fuck you. The United States of America is based on fuck you. You're a king? You have an army? Greatest navy in the history of the world? Fuck you! Blow me. We'll fuck it up ourselves." this video
If you have no mortgage, own your home, and have saved enough in investments, even if AGI/ASI materially impairs the labor economy, you are in a far better position than someone who rents, someone with a large mortgage who needs a job for the next 20-30 years, etc assuming rule of law holds up. Free money is free money, to not take it would be silly. Just don't blow it on a Lambo. I'm not qualified to touch on your point wrt constraining and wrangling machine intelligence, so no comment on that. this video (NSFW language, first 45 seconds is the relevant part)
I left a FAANG-like job in 2016 (VP, CTO) to join a startup. It was a disaster. I then co-founded a startup. I left two years later, parted ways with the other two co-founders in a friendly way. All this time, I funded my life with my savings. I had enough on the side to do that, and thankfully other things went well in my life, so I don't really regret it, but... If I could go back, I'd simply tell myself that most of the time, quitting a well-paying job if you are not in a F*ck-you money [0] territory, is a bad idea. [0]: this video