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Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

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Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#221

Post by dragonwriter »

silveroriole wrote: post #206
balabaster wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "of course"? You say this as if a foregone conclusion, a statement of fact. There's zero wrong with considering what it means to be a man. Just because I don't address what it means to be a woman doesn't make me sexist. It's not toxic to consider who you are and what values you hold dear. Perhaps the wince that's induced in you is projection on your part? It doesn't make me wince. Nor do I apologize for it. I don't…

‘Of course’, it does lead to the obvious absurdity that a woman who fulfills all the good qualities of the poem is a man! “The Female Man”, perhaps...

> 'Of course’, it does lead to the obvious absurdity that a woman who fulfills all the good qualities of the poem is a man!

But...it doesn't. While the fictious direct addressee is the “son” (whether literal or in the figurative sense of an protege of an elder mentor is neither explicit nor important, since the whole impact of the poem is in its general applicability not in it being specific to an addressee) of the speaker from whose POV the poem is told, the son/man pairing necessarily states that the qualities are tied to adulthood/maturity, but is just as valid if they are not inherently tied to gender as if they are.

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#222

Post by gowld »

sleepysysadmin wrote: post #83
eeeeeeeeeeeee wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have experienced everything you cited. Especially the death threats. Even when we shut off a customer for non-payment we would sometimes get them at my one job. The negativity seems to be pervasive at companies where tech is viewed as a cost center. At those kind of companies, IT tries to be proactive at first, but being proactive usually costs money, so it's often ignored. And then a failure happens as a result of…

>As for IT being understaffed, I do think this problem could be improved if companies invested more in their employees (e.g. training). And maybe took more chances on peoples capability, instead of requiring 2-3 years of experience on a range of skills prior to hiring them. I disagree. There are people who graduate with a 3 year degree and they know absolutely nothing. I've interviewed 7 CCNAs with 3 year degrees in…

Huh? To better compensated as a lawyer,you need to make partner by getting good at sales, not being a better lawyer.

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#223

Post by sastraxi »

jeofken wrote: post #169

For years I struggled to become financially independent (as Mr Money Mustache). Years upon years of watching the clock until it hit 17:30, hating the dumb coders who made a mess for me to clean up (because I know FP, and if we had types these bugs wouldn’t be here in the first place!). A year ago, I pulled the plug, and retired. Finally, I could work on my dream project every day. I did so for 6 months, and travelled…

Feeling seriously inspired by your post. Thanks for sharing!

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#224

Post by gowld »

ergothus wrote: post #109
sleepysysadmin wrote: post #9

There is a severe workplace burnout problem in IT(especially MSPs); which when not addressed grows into bigger mental health issues and even literal sicknesses. There just isn't enough skilled IT people. The industry is immature and is bottom heavy. The top performers and seniors, are then overwhelmed with work and the business is unable to hire more senior people to reduce workload. Then the business keeps growing a…

> The industry is immature and is bottom heavy. I'm not entirely sure what "bottom" you refer to here. From what I see, there's a misalignment: Lots of senior people lose time doing work that doesn't require senior people, because there aren't enough non-senior people available to do that work. The solution to this is seen as hiring more senior people, which fails, because while there are lots of junior people, no on…

"Senior" is a red herring. Software has near zero marginal cost and unbounded potential value, so you'll always have more copies of the software running in the world than people who know how to use it well.

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#225

Post by short_sells_poo »

willmhorne wrote: post #122
short_sells_poo wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd like to prefix this as _anecdotal_ as it is only some speculation I've done on the matter, but here is my take on it: The brain is in the end a neural network, and like all such devices, can get stuck in various local minima that are difficult to get out of. An old habit that has been reinforced through many years can take a considerable "shock" to dislodge. All the little cognitive and behavioral biases that one…

My question is: If drugs "remove the long standing subconscious filters and biases that one has built over their life," what replaces them? Does one simply continue living into posterity without filters? I argue not, and in fact that, over time, the filters tend to come back without repeated exposure to drugs and drug-thought, and one is given a choice: return slightly-modified to regular life, or commit to taking dr…

> If drugs "remove the long standing subconscious filters and biases that one has built over their life," what replaces them?

Perhaps I should've phrased this better. These filters are removed temporarily (for the 8-12 hours that the drug is active), then it is up to the individual to do what they will with the findings while the filters are gone. I don't think one needs repeated exposure either. I have seen many cases among my friends, most have never felt the need to repeat the experience.

There are risks of course, and a change for the worse is a distinct possibility. A dramatic change like delusions and paranoia are fairly rare, but are ostensibly a risk. There is a reason why every sensible source advises to do mental prep-work, and in a clinical setting, the whole treatment is overseen by a professional.

Like any mind altering substance, they can be abused.

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#227

Post by newnewpdro »

jeofken wrote: post #169

For years I struggled to become financially independent (as Mr Money Mustache). Years upon years of watching the clock until it hit 17:30, hating the dumb coders who made a mess for me to clean up (because I know FP, and if we had types these bugs wouldn’t be here in the first place!). A year ago, I pulled the plug, and retired. Finally, I could work on my dream project every day. I did so for 6 months, and travelled…

There's a learning curve to being independent, it sounds like you never even got started on it.

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#228

Post by gowld »

silveroriole wrote: post #206
balabaster wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "of course"? You say this as if a foregone conclusion, a statement of fact. There's zero wrong with considering what it means to be a man. Just because I don't address what it means to be a woman doesn't make me sexist. It's not toxic to consider who you are and what values you hold dear. Perhaps the wince that's induced in you is projection on your part? It doesn't make me wince. Nor do I apologize for it. I don't…

‘Of course’, it does lead to the obvious absurdity that a woman who fulfills all the good qualities of the poem is a man! “The Female Man”, perhaps...

Just change the last line to "you'll be an adult, my child" or "you'll be a woman, my girl" and move on.

If you can't make a trivial fix to a simple problem, you aren't paying attention to the poem's message.

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#229

Post by gph »

yardie wrote: post #181
barberousse wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>So the industry (in terms of people experience) is bottom-heavy in the work pool. Places that can afford it are top heavy in talent+experience, and everyone else is bottom-heavy in low experience, and neither type of place is doing anything to really address their problems long-term. When I came to my company I was a junior front-end engineer with no CS degree. A few months in or so in I'm apart of a post-work discu…

Liberal arts grad here. It is infuriating how much I here how schools are a waste of time (money at today's rates, I totally agree). Like university is the only place you can go to learn things. And the only way to make a living is through the degree you earned in university.

>Like university is the only place you can go to learn things.

I get that the self-reliance learning angle is way overstated, but that's going a bit too far.

I learned programming mostly on my own, albeit while working in QA and having exposure to code and programmers. But it's not like I got mentored or needed someone to hold my hand learning this stuff. If you can read and have the initiative to play around with code and figure it out you'll do a lot better than half the learned fools coming out of university. I consistently out perform my peers with CS degrees when it comes to tracking down a hard bug. I swear some of these people hit the first wall and just have no idea what to do.

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#230

Post by SubuSS »

jeofken wrote: post #185
taurath wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What will you do when you retire for good?

I did intend to retire for good. Now I’m thinking to maybe do coding a few months per year, and food delivery on bicycle for the rest, in order to get a work out and be useful to someone. I realized, if I’m not useful, then I’m useless.

Are/Were there any other options of taking up a voluntary heavy load other than one you find mind numbing? Say things like run for politics, start teaching or even start your own company etc.

As you mention, this is a dream for many. My fears are literally what you described - I almost shut shop and left for my home country 5 or so years ago to start my own company, but finally decided not to because of variety of reasons. One of them was definitely rusting away alone. So I am looking to hear more!

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