11 Comments
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Yves Junqueira's avatar

Great post, Jos, I think many people need to read this.

I like the part where you say your biggest fear is becoming poor so your goal is be to accumulate more capital to continue to afford better wine, in case society collapses :-).

I am sure you are happy at your job so you want others to share that happiness - you're a good dude.

But, of course, people have different goals and needs.

When Alexander the Great was in an expedition to Persia, he stopped in Corinth and wanted to meet the famous cynic philosopher, Diogenes. I quote:

"At the approach of so many people, Diogenes sat up a little and fixed his eyes on Alexander (the Great). When the king greeted him and asked if there was anything he wanted, Diogenes replied, `Yes, that you should stand a little out of my sun`".

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Jos Visser's avatar

Definitely true. One of the guys I know from college moved to rural Canada decades ago and he ran the local ISP and did some odd jobs. Back then we mailed every now and then and he basically said that he was making no money but had an amazing life style. Good for him!

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Hector Rivas Gandara's avatar

Great. The part of moving to Spain resonates so much to me. Being natural from Spain, each day I wonder wth I am doing here, the change you are talking about would so easy for me....

tbh, in reality just reasons like career development, for my partner mostly, and all the baggage we have here (house, etc).

Said that, I agree with your vision. Be ready.

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Jos Visser's avatar

But then again, he who dies with the most toys, is still dead :-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESCKC8fdML4

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Claudia Tudor's avatar

Great Piece Jos. Thank you for that. It really looks like engineers that had been in a certain company for a long time, they are not used to these kind of interviews anymore, don't know how to prepare or think it is not needed. At the same time they are sometimes also insecure how good they really are. :). Surely this episode will make many people prepare.

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Jos Visser's avatar

Thank you for your kind words!

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Lulu Byrd's avatar

Good luck with the remodeling! I was dreaming about retiring in France, but now I know Spain is the Florida of Europe, I get to dream about retiring there. I agree, I've seen experienced senior engineers totally bombing interviews and I wanted to yell at them: come on man! (the "man" here is gender neural). Enjoy your time in Spain!

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Jos Visser's avatar

Thank you!

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Gerrit Niemeijer's avatar

Great episode! (and I am also old and Dutch enough to remember "wij van wc-eend adviseren: wc-eend")

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Jos Visser's avatar

Een tijdloze klassieker, die met name op LinkedIn nog steeds opgang doet!

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Jos Visser's avatar

Dankjewel!

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