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Ask HN: What are some of the dark sides of being in the tech industry?
31–40 of 97 posts
Re: Ask HN: What are some of the dark sides of being in the tech industry?
#32Have you seen Silicon Valley (the HBO show)?
Re: Ask HN: What are some of the dark sides of being in the tech industry?
#33There is an expectation and honestly a need to keep up with changes to the industry that I haven't seen in other fields. Any older dev has had to transition at least 1-2 languages and it's not an easy step. That doesn't even start covering how fast javascript frameworks are moving. Oh, hey you learned Angular, that's so 3 years ago we don't do that here. We use Vue.js which is better because _________. Vue will be re…
Are you a veteran who has experienced this? Because this sounds completely wrong to me.
An experienced developer typically has no problem picking up new languages/frameworks/tools/etc. There isn't much value in familiarising oneself with arbitrary and invented things, of which there are many in our industry, and they are ephemeral.
No, the real value is in knowing and understanding the discovered things. And since they are discovered and not invented, they do not change.
There's still plenty to learn, but you have more than a lifetime's worth of learning ahead of you even if you steer clear of the shiny baubles that are React/Angular(v[1..n])/Vue/Whatever.
Re: Ask HN: What are some of the dark sides of being in the tech industry?
#34Being on call and in a constant state of readiness to troubleshoot problems is tiresome. Even if problems rarely occur, the constant awareness of potential responsibility can quickly lead to burn out. The medical field has known this for a long time, and as a result, physicians get paid a lot of money to take extra call coverage. This is a very neglected topic of discussion within software development.
Former ops engineer here. Get out of ops. In the current climate, it is rare you'll find a role that compensates you for being on call frequently and the toll it takes on you.
Re: Ask HN: What are some of the dark sides of being in the tech industry?
#35"Always Be Coding" -- people who spend their time on work/passion project/open source projects are somehow valued more than those who spend their time on work/non-technical pursuits.
Re: Ask HN: What are some of the dark sides of being in the tech industry?
#36Creative license: the trend i have seen at startups is moving more in the direction of product and designer control over the things a company creates. For developers seeking control over their creations, this can be a frustrating thing to be a part of. Even at small startups, the value of designers and product managers is pretty obvious. It can be tough to find the right balance of control there. Sexism: this is a to…
Product and design should own products most of the time. I think most startups would be better off outsourcing their builds.
I don't how I can disagree with you more.
Re: Ask HN: What are some of the dark sides of being in the tech industry?
#37- any interesting/impactful work is immediately crowded by tons of other people willing to sacrifice more than you to own it. They usually win.
- the prevalent engineering management culture is a form of psychological manipulation to turn engineers into cogs and make you feel like you are always behind and stressed. It emphasizes weekly bandaid fixes to long running problems.
- you have to work hard to be promoted, progress your career and make more money; but higher positions generally have much greater stress, workload and painful non-technical work (sales, politics)
- the bay area becomes a nightmare in middle age. the local governments love capitalizing tech income in the form of taxes or housing prices, but won't change a thing to improve the your life. leading a normal middle class life with kids in a safe area with good schools (e.g. peninsula, or Marin) will completely exhaust a 2x200k dual income. Commutes are awful. Unless you win the startup lottery, you'll be working your brains out and hardly find time to enjoy life.
Re: Ask HN: What are some of the dark sides of being in the tech industry?
#38Creative license: the trend i have seen at startups is moving more in the direction of product and designer control over the things a company creates. For developers seeking control over their creations, this can be a frustrating thing to be a part of. Even at small startups, the value of designers and product managers is pretty obvious. It can be tough to find the right balance of control there. Sexism: this is a to…
Product and design should own products most of the time. I think most startups would be better off outsourcing their builds.
Any particular reasons you think this? Does it apply to or exclude specific industries?
Re: Ask HN: What are some of the dark sides of being in the tech industry?
#39The sedentary lifestyle.
Re: Ask HN: What are some of the dark sides of being in the tech industry?
#40Bugs always get triaged. Nobody can afford zero tolerance, as much as I would like to work that way.