[cyberdrunk]

I'm not sure if that was "proper" depression, but many times I've felt very low at my jobs. Luckily, I was always making enough to save a lot of money, so I was able to quit and recover every ~2 years. During the recovery period, I followed my various interests, such as exploring programming, ML, computer vision, mathematics, making art, music, games, reading a lot of books. I didn't go deep on many of these, but I gained some understanding of the fields and what it is like to do these things, which I feel made me a much more well-rounded person, compared to someone who has just been working software jobs his whole life.

Incidentally, one of the results is that now I see jobs as strictly means to an end - i.e. a way to earn money to be able to do interesting things. I think it makes me more resilient at jobs - whatever the level of suckage I experience in a job, I know that it is only temporary and that this sacrifice is for something. If I was career oriented, the depressing circumstances of many jobs would hit me much much harder (as career-oriented people see career as a huge part of their file, and the realisation that huge part of your life is a failure and makes you miserable surely can lead to massive depression).

[giantg2]

I agree. I am one of those career people. Unfortunately I dont make enough to quit.

The lies the company tells to dangle the carrot in front of you eventually destroys you when you never get it. At my company, the policies are great but they don't follow them. Plus, the project leadership/vision sucks.

I've never been diagnosed with depression. I tend to be happy, or at least content, when not at work. When I'm at work, I constantly dream of quitting.

[cyberdrunk]

Keeping costs of living low (see my comment above) is a very reliable, if long-winded, path to freedom. The fact, that, via LCOL, you don't depend on "them" as much, also helps mentally.

[giantg2]

I try, but I have a family and my wife does not financially contribute.

I have a garden (big enough I can stuff), keep bees (and sell honey), grow shiitake and lions mane, make our alcohol (fruit wines, mostly from stuff I grow), make our own soap, and other hobbies that save or make some money. Of course I do the usual stuff like Netflix instead of cable, use a budget cell carrier, etc.

It helps, but the big influence is one's spouse. My spouse spends most of her money on horse stuff. I'm left to pay the bills and basically support us on a single income. She does not share my dream of retiring early.

[throw_this_one]

How much did you set aside for each break and how long were they? I agree that when you change the way you view it, everything can change.

[cyberdrunk]

I'm in a fortunate position that I make 5-10x my living expenses (living in EE while either taking six figure US remote jobs or local top-end jobs). So, savings are not an object, and the main problem with quitting is the worry that I won't be able to get as lucrative job next time... Usually, I have to be pretty beaten up mentally to quit and take that risk. Current strategy is to make the job I'm in last one and just go FIRE in a year or two.

[throw_this_one]

Epic. Are you an American that moved there for that reason? Or just a really good/experienced local that can leverage that lifestyle/salary arbitrage?

Might try this sometime soon. I'm pretty well-versed, but which city in EE would you recommend?

[cyberdrunk]

I'm local, born here.

The money (500-600 EUR per day) I get here locally is very much an outlier. I've heard only of a few other people who make that much, and they're all in my area of specialty (big data - meaning Spark, Hadoop etc. - on important projects for huge corps). So I wouldn't really count on someone just off the plane being able to land such a deal. Half of that is not too hard to get though for a techlead or a good senior in a hot field or perhaps even just in Java for a big (=difficult) backend project. Also, importantly, if you work as a contractor, the taxes are just 19%, which is amazing compared to most western countries.

Poland is by far the biggest market in the region (and Warsaw is by far biggest market in Poland, but Krakow, Wroclaw, Gdansk and Poznan are also viable) and I'd recommend moving here if you're eyeing EE. However, the really good deals here are all in contracting (you simultaneously get higher rates AND lower taxes) and I don't know how that works with visas and if it's even doable... Sorry, I just haven't met any non-EU foreigner here on a contract yet.

[throw_this_one]

Dziekuje for the reply!

Sounds pretty legit.

Do those large backend Java projects usually have to do with Big Data? Or fairly vanilla, just with complicated business logic.