Ask HN: How to optimize your career for happiness?

Re:Ask HN: How to optimize your career for happiness? by chriseidhof on Sunday December 19, 2021 @01:13PM (#29616535)

I'm very happy with my career. We run a small website teaching advanced iOS development (objc.io). We write books and make videos. I run it with my co-founder and that's basically it. We have some really good people we work with, but 80% of the time it's just the two of us, and we're pretty aligned in what we want.

When my daughter was born (almost 4 years ago) I switched to not working a lot. Maybe 5-6 hours a day. I spend almost every afternoon with the family (after my daughter wakes up from her nap). In the early mornings I do my workouts. The combination of this makes me really happy.

We make more than enough money (we live a modest lifestyle), even though I could probably make a lot more in a real job. But having the freedom -- both in doing what we want work-wise, as well as having a lot of family time -- is pretty amazing. I have no regrets so far.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: How to optimize your career for happiness? by tahnhnxfl on Sunday December 19, 2021 @10:40PM (#29621332)

Thanks for posting this Chris, I've always wondered this about people in your position who could arguably get top positions at any top tech company of choice but choose to work on teaching instead. I can't tell you how much I appreciate objc.io, I still go back the issues from 2013-2015 for reference. Keep up the good work!

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: How to optimize your career for happiness? by chriseidhof on Monday December 20, 2021 @01:49PM (#29628441)

Thank you! Yeah I really do enjoy my work. I’m not sure what it’d be like working in such a position, and I'm not sure I’d be good at it :).

[ Parent | on HN ]