Ask HN: I simply hate working. What do I do?

2) if you are not highly goal oriented, ask yourself if you are highly money oriented because if you can reduce your basis of costs, you can reduce the work hours, and maximise the non-work hours. If you do like money and things and expensive lifestyle, you have to either turn to a life of crime, or continue to work.

3) the corollary of 2) is "be careful what you wish for" because without 1) you risk falling into a slough of despond, because it turns out not working is very bad for people's mental health. It's the underpinning of relevance deprivation syndrome, of FOMO, of isolation.

4) but 3) said, there are so many ways to stay engaged in a community of like minds. Volunteering, pursuing sport and social activities, but I encourage you to think about badly paid, physical labour, with others, outdoors, because that turns out to be healthy too. Nobody is paying google 10x norm for manual labour, but some manual work is satisfying work. Go clean dishes at a childcare centre. Pack shelves. Free your inner OCD and sort books at a library. Learn how to chainsaw.

5) you're a long time dead. you're unlikely to be a fossil of interest to any future archeologist, purely because of statistics. Given you don't have long in geological time here, it's worth getting the most fun out of it. If work doesn't cut it for you, then find the sweetspot of income and work which does, and seek help to get there. 1) is gold. Be prepared to spend money to be advised how to re-frame your sense of self.

If your answer is "I can't afford to do that" then you have an immediate answer to the problem of not liking work.

I knew I hated work within 1 month of graduating in 1982. But it turns out, Jack Black was right and "sticking it to the man" by doing amazingly well at not working at work, while still getting things done, is actually, kind of OK. The key thing is getting things done. If you can't get things done, nobody wants to pay you. If you can get things done, nobody much cares if you don't think of it, as work.

(still learning what I want to be when I grow up, retiring inside 4 years before I'm 65, gainfully employed, renumerated adequately to my needs)

The reality is that very few people truly enjoy their work. Only those who are lucky and have a clear understanding of what they want can find a job that brings them happiness and satisfaction, and even then, it’s almost impossible to achieve this state right from the start. Accepting that not enjoying work is normal can be liberating. Instead, choose one key aspect that makes the job worthwhile for you, whether it’s money, experience, skills, or friendships. Focusing on that can make the daily grind more bearable.

Given that you’re working remotely, this situation can be even better balanced. I’m also working remotely, and when I’m feeling down, I simply don’t work, regardless of whether it’s a workday or not. This flexibility can greatly improve your overall well-being.

Join some of the FIRE (financial independence, retire early) reddits.

Look into arranging the kind of life you want/need.

No one owes you a life. They don't owe you food, shelter, electricity, internet, etc. If you want those things you need to do something they want in return or do them all yourself (plant crops, hunt, setup a windmill or waterwheel, ...)

All that said, of course you should try to find work you like. It's better than work you don't. I've known people who like solving technical problems and are fairly happy at nearly any tech job. I've known people that like working as a chef because they feel good making good food for people. I've known people that like working as bartenders because they get to socialize every day. I've know people that like running an ice cream store because every person they hand the ice cream too gives them a smile.

For me, I love to work on my own projects, even when they begin to suck; pushing through the grind is weirdly rewarding.

But the moment I have a boss telling me what to do, pressuring me to perform, and my work profiting someone else, my enthusiasm wanes toward mere professionalism; I perform the job, not live it.

7 options:

0. Take a break, vacation, or go on some hippie mindfulness retreat.

1. Change your frame to find a way to handle it, i.e., gamify it, measure it, make it a challenge, use it to gather industry intelligence and connections, and/or as a temporary evil to find escape from through other means. Remember that you own your work ethic, attitude, professionalism, and satisfaction level. In a some business contexts, some difficult things can be monetized and some companies refuse to monetize obvious opportunities. You will need to find a way to do (or automate) things other people find "extremely difficult" because there is often profit in it.

2. GTD + efficiency: delegate, defer, or trash tasks if and when they aren't essential to making impact you can get credit for and other people need now.

3. Smoothly move to a different job or different kind of job like management or as a business owner.

4. Cultivate hobbies and life outside of work.

5. Start a business (not a startup, because this is a unique and risky subtype of business) gradually on the side.

6. Be completely honest with yourself to identify your short-term and long-terms goals and your motivations to identify how you're going to make money and re-invest profits wisely.

Notes:

i. You're unlikely to get significantly rich quickly enough as an employee of another business without owning significant equity.

ii. Try not to waste much life on non-value-add activities. If you're engaged in some activity, be sure it has learning potential, upside, or both.

iii. Being a business owner doesn't make stakeholders disappear, but it shifts all of the risks and business judgements onto you.

iv. Winning the lottery is magical thinking. The behavior of buying lottery tickets is the single strongest signal of someone who is unlikely to be rich according to the data of the late wealth researcher and author Thomas J. Stanley.

It puts you in a favourable spot because this is how most great money is made: by capable people who don't care about anything but their personal bottom line.

Just make a dash to a passive income as ruthlessly as possible, even if it means ruining things, engaging in corruption, or doing really dirty stuff like outsourcing. Retire in 3 or 5 years.

I do not recommend plowing ahead doing work you hate. But living frugally is an underrated way of giving yourself a little slack in the system.

https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-si...

I am retired now but when I was working:

I managed to negotiate with my boss to gain two days off each week.

I proposed to work longer days with slightly reduced pay.

30 hours over 3 days instead of 36 hours over 5 days.

longer days but at least I have 4 days each week to do what I please:

Thats an extra 100 days each year to do as I please.

More time for family, fishing, martial arts, gardening and professional development.

I was happier.

The ultimate work life balance.

You are not a slave dont act like one.

We really all need to be in a union.

You can prove this to yourself.

Tomorrow, when you go to work, check in at regular intervals and ask yourself, “What’s wrong with what’s happening?”

Usually, the answer will be something like “It’s pointless,” “It’s tedious,” “I’d rather be doing X than Y,” or “I’m tired.” Short of your work causing you physical harm, it doesn’t matter what the answer is.

Look into why you answered that with as much detachment as possible. Ask yourself questions like, “Is the thing I’m doing inherently unpleasant? Is it hated by everyone who does it? Is it possible that if I dropped the contextual story around what I’m doing, it’s actually about the same as doing anything else?”

You will find that the misery comes from comparing what you’re doing to some ideal that is just that—an imaginary idea that does not actually exist. It’s pretend. Stop comparing reality to pretend things. Take what you’re doing for what it is. Your mind is not going to love doing this because it thrives on resistance to what is. That’s fine; just recognize that and keep investigating what’s happening.

Keep doing this until you realize that you’re creating your own hell and that you can also escape it with just a few creative adjustments to the story you’re telling yourself.

Moving places or changing jobs won’t fix it. Working less or more won’t fix it. Having a more meaningful job won’t fix it. Having no job won’t fix it.

This is not complacency—change can and will happen, but it’s not going to happen until you’re content with what you’re doing now. Good change comes as a result of accepting what’s real now. Good change doesn’t come from escaping what you’re doing now for some pretend ideal.

Imagine there's <5 years till AGI and all problems solved. What do you keep/change? Start there.