fire is mostly about hating your life
FIRE is unusually popular among software engineers because they're at a unique intersection of frequently making enough for it to be viable and frequently fucking hating their jobs.
this is less intrinsically about "software engineering" than it about *big tech*
@ThatsMauvelousFIRE is broadly unattractive, hence its rarity
but it seems oddly popular for software engineers, perhaps b/c of big early comp + age discrimination? https://t.co/AXncCyRkL1
if ur mostly working at startups or founding, saving a bunch of cash doesn't really matter and ur not getting paid a huge amount anyway. ur out is an exit, something actually paying off. and ur probably working hard enough that u both enjoy ur job and need some luxury on weekends
it's not that *everyone* at big tech hates their jobs, but they pay so much, employ so many people, and have so little real work to do, that it's very easy to find yourself being paid an implausible amount while your brain fries itself and your soul rots
at that point u can do the math, and the math will show u that if u can just endure another 8 years of this then u can retire. not "maybe", not "lottery ticket". no, you'll just be a multimillionaire under even very conservative market conditions
it's a rare position to be in! u thought u loved tech, but it looks like actually working in tech is fucking horrible?? maybe a different job would be better but there's no guarantee. and since u don't have any other clear career options ... might as well stick it out..
such is the internal thought process of the average r/financialindependence subscriber L4 google swe.
of course there is another way out: you can actually just get a different fucking job. but they don't know that, it doesn't feel plausible or safe
so they continue on that path until something happens. something sufficient to jog them out of their stupor . something to make them realize *you can actually just enjoy your work*
it doesn't even really require leaving big tech. like i said there are genuinely enjoyable jobs there too. all it requires is realizing, really internalizing, that it's possible. and then optimizing for it over stability and compensation EV. that's all. then everything changes
life when you hate your job is pretty irreducibly bad. you can cope and partition it out but fundamentally you have a huge chunk of your time and identity tied up in discomfort and negativity.
life when you love your job is pretty good. there are all kinds of other ways to fuck it up! it's by no means the most important thing. but having something ur excited to think about and do every day and good people to work on it with is *deeply satisfying*
saving money is a smart thing to do. keep buying VTSAX. but unsubscribe from r/financialindependence dawg. its so easy to find a way to just be happy right now.