81–90 of 160 posts
i quit after realising how ineffective it is to support a founder who stopped focusing on the product.
Trying to do something on my own now, maybe I'll reassess in the fall and ask for my job back or start looking around if this doesn't work. Its not really a "break" because I'm working a lot (maybe more than before) but I figured this is my window to try. Somewhat hoping big tech will always be there but if not i can make do with whatever I get as long its doesn't have a toxic culture.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Imagine the reverse. A butcher buys a Linux computer and tries to become a programmer in a week. Struggles with getting nested loops to work, so quits. Not saying you should be a butcher, but a week and no training is a difficult approach.
I think, to be honest, even with more training, I was already too old... A hindquarter is heavy as hell, I think I kind permanently busted my back just shuffling it around, nevermind cutting a shin bone...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure, but because work is something we spend so much time on, when workers can quit when the work feels meaningless or absurd, that's a good thing. We should aspire for a society where all workers can do that.
I’m making no comment about how things _should_ broadly be. Only that we should consciously appreciate how rare it is for quitting to be a practical, and non-ruinous, option.
Not quitting just yet, but the culture is super toxic lately. Managers will promise things that are not feasible, set absurd deadlines, and then let engineers take the fall if they don't meet those deadlines. When engineers come up with good ideas, managers will say it's a bad idea, but then run away with the idea and take the credit. I wake up every day wondering if I should quiet quit or go for a clean exit.
But nowadays, in the current environment, I am extremely glad that I get paid hourly. It's a different skillset. There's a lot of acting and sometimes drama involved but thankfully I'm good at both engineering and acting... Also, I kind of like drama. Anyone who cares about their work, in this economy, is delusional (probably had it easy) and it's a matter of time before reality gets to them as it did to me and many others.
I feel kind of bad for colleagues who take their job too seriously though. I can feel their pain but I can't tell them to relax because I have to also act my part and pretend to feel passionate.
However, my real passion these days is money hitting my bank account. Puts a smile on my face. The less hard I worked, the happier I am. And I'm paid by the hour. So logically I need to create situations to maximize my lock-in factor, above all else.
If you can keep up the pretense for 2 years, then that's enough to keep you employed perpetually. So engineers should focus more on acting skills and other soft skills and less on technical stuff.
Look at all the people in management roles who made big money, none of them have technical skills. It's all about acting. If they built their entire career out of bullshit, surely I can build the second half of mine out of bullshit also! By the time I retire, I'd still have contributed more value than them!
Already did. Hated working with AI. Will try to start a business one day where I can code how I like it. Currently not doing anything IT related. Just went on a bike ride.
What are you riding these days? Do you like it? I'm shopping to replace my old beginner bike
What an utterly privileged life we lead when we can just decide to quit our jobs because things are getting too “absurd”.
Not quitting just yet, but the culture is super toxic lately. Managers will promise things that are not feasible, set absurd deadlines, and then let engineers take the fall if they don't meet those deadlines. When engineers come up with good ideas, managers will say it's a bad idea, but then run away with the idea and take the credit. I wake up every day wondering if I should quiet quit or go for a clean exit.
Maybe we should start a support group.
You mean Ask HN: Who wants to be fired?
"You can't fire me because I quit! Throw me in the fire and I won't throw a fit."
My current company, even though slower than the industry, has started pushing AI-first for everything. Funny that as soon they announced it they started losing senior developers and most teams are now composed mostly of juniors + 1 senior.This on safety-critical adjacent products. Burnout and bugs are rampant. As a counter measure they are increasing salaries of the seniors but with low adherence. I'm currently looki…