this is a post about the people who have good work life balance. you have a job, perhaps it is even fully remote. you have enough time to fit in a second job, or at least maybe half of one.

that empty space is what companies will advertise as work life balance. taking a step back from the marketing that these companies do, it is just empty space.

on a computer, extra free memory is sometimes referred to as swap space. programs will run much faster if they have swap space.

i think it is a really good analogy to “having a lot of time” . if you have all the time in the world, you can afford to wait and negotiate good terms for yourself.

having a bad work life balance isn’t a bad thing. hopefully, the terms are negotiated really well for you if you are pouring all of your time into that job. the reason, is because you have no time to be looking for other opportunities. with no work life balance, you are totally trapped in the situation. quitting or getting fired is the only way out.

it isn’t bad to be trapped in a good situation. however, if you rather have work life balance, you are in a place to explore different situations you would want to fully commit yourself to. you can string up multiple competitive job offers, and then take the next step.

i actually like working hard aka. 60+ hours a week and being trapped in a good situation. however, i am thankful that i currently have work life balance, i have swap space. i have the capability to practice building different patterns that i want to have into my life, and talk with people in all kinds of different industries about the problems they are facing. i can discuss with executives, ask them about their problems, how they can possibly solve them with technology.

if people want to talk business with me, that is cool. however, only a brilliant opportunity, or something great + part time + short term would be sufficient in order to sacrifice swap space.