Vincent Evangelisti

When I quit my job at Meta, I was making $297,000 a year. But I decided to leave it and start back at $0. And it's the best decision I've made in my life. Here's why: $300K. That's a lot more money than any twenty-something year old kid deserves to make in a year. Or at least that's what society and the media might have you believe. Sure, after taxes, 401-k and HSA contributions and rent in Mountain View you're "only" left with $100K to spend. But that's still a lot of money. It's enough for a Tesla. Or even two Teslas. So it wasn't about the money. It came down to two things: First was leverage and compound interest. You can 2x your output as an engineer at Meta. You can work longer hours, spend thousands of dollars investing in yourself, and dump out twice as much code as you used to. But that doesn't 2x your salary. The input you put in (a.k.a. the value you create for shareholders) does not equal the output you receive (a.k.a. your paycheck). You can be the world's hardest W-2 worker, but at the end of the day, your potential (and potential for earning) are capped. As you compound your growth, progress, and skills over many years, you'll realize that your reward doesn't compound at the same rate. And like I said, it wasn't about the money. It's about working in an incentive structure where you're not encouraged to put in 100%. Rather, you're instead incentivized to cruise through just enough to hit your bonus targets. Personally, that is not how I want to live my life. All else equal, if you 2x your business, you'll 2x your income. Compound interest will work for you in the long run, and not against you. So you're incentivized to put in your all, because you know your work won't be wasted. And the second was self-fulfillment. I am not a great 9-5 worker. I look at my phone. Take frequent bathroom breaks. When the clock hits 4PM, I stare at it waiting for it to count down to 5. I was getting work done, and sure I was bringing in lots of money for the company and the shareholders. But the work wasn't satisfying. An updated ad campaign I engineered brought in $570,000 of sales. So what? I can't even see these customers. I have no clue if they're happy they bought the product, and at the end of the day, I was devoting my life for a statistic, not people. And it wasn't satisfying. If I was going to spend 80,000 hours and the majority of my days devoting myself to a cause, I want it to be something I can be proud of and genuinely enjoy. It's not even about "trading your time for money". In fact, I'm more than happy to trade my time for money if it's a cause I can whole-heartedly get behind. But that wasn't it. That's my quick story. If you have any comments, questions, criticisms, or hate, feel free to send it my way via comments or DMs. Happy Friday to you too!