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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   1150 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for January 16, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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I've found being actually unemployed a great way to appreciate that very boring and stupid corporate job. Having a mortgage, and tuition, and healthcare, and groceries piling up with no income really takes the romanticism out of blowing up your life.

Yeah, I was unemployed for 9 months before taking this job, so I feel you. It has been a year and a half now and I'm getting the itch again though.

Man, I don't know how you do it. I know another guy like you, who just quits jobs, lives off savings, and fucks around for months to years. Then when that runs out he just gets another job, white knuckles it as long as he can, and repeats.

I was out of my fucking brain 3 weeks into joblessness. I went from "I'm going to have so much fun making a game while I look for work" to "FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK I NEED TO UPDATE ALL MY SKILLS AND LEARN EVERYTHING OR MY FAMILY WILL STARVE AND I'LL DIE ALONE!" I kept asking him how he does it, but I guess the answer is just that we're built totally different.

Anyways, that's all over with now. But man, I am not built to be jobless until I well and truly discover an infinite money glitch.

I know another guy like you, who just quits jobs, lives off savings, and fucks around for months to years. Then when that runs out he just gets another job, white knuckles it as long as he can, and repeats.

That dude is living the dream. God willing, I will blow up my life that way next year.

I think the best period is when you've accepted the position and are waiting a few weeks for your start date, assuming you have enough money that you aren't desperately waiting for that first paycheck. It combines the joy of not working with the security of not wondering how you're going to pay the bills. And it's better than a vacation because it's usually longer and you're actually excited about going back to work rather than dreading it. It's also a situation I hope to never be in again.

I think losing my old job the way I did hit me with some deep rooted impostor syndrome. I'm probably going to spend the next 3 weeks until my start date studying up on what they told me about their tech stack so far. It's a senior position, so I feel like I need to show up like I know things.

I don't know if this pertains to your situation, but in general a pretty common thing for people is the employment lifecycle:

Get annoyed/bored/lazy/too comfortable with job ->
Performance suffers ->
Get PIPed/fired/laid off/managed out ->
Develop sudden sense of urgency to reskill and upskill while desperately finding next job ->
Finally find next job ->
Highly motivated to start off new job strong ->
Continue with job for a while ->
Get annoyed/bored/lazy/too comfortable with job...

I tried to follow this plan, but it went more like this:

Get annoyed/bored/lazy/too comfortable with job ->
Performance suffers ->
Promoted to management in a line of work where no one wants the job and I would massively have to fuck up to get fired ->
Stuck with golden silver tin? handcuffs

Failing upward is a #Winning state. One can soak up any trepidations related to guilt, imposter syndrome, or golden handcuffs along the lines of the wiping_tears_with_money.gif meme.

golden handcuffs along the lines of the wiping_tears_with_money.gif meme.

More like "plastic coated with aluminum foil" handcuffs, and I'm only wiping up tears with money if I'm using (and reusing) a bunch of singles.

It combines the joy of not working with the security of not wondering how you're going to pay the bills. And it's better than a vacation because it's usually longer and you're actually excited about going back to work rather than dreading it. It's also a situation I hope to never be in again.

You… hate joy? Calvin’s dad would approve.

I mean, I didn't exactly choose it. I got fired two weeks before my 1 year equity cliff at a startup I basically built half off, and was having so many intense health issues there was no way I could've held a job even if I wanted to. It was pretty brutal my man.

I also negotiated enough severance to keep me paying bills for a year, so that helped.

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