111–120 of 754 posts
I'm having similar issues, and i think i found a way out: stop playing their game. Don't make enterprise software. Don't write unit tests. Don't accept pull requests. Simply write software for yourself and have fun doing it. Forget refactoring code into modules, just fucking code. Don't worry about deployment with k8s, just copy the Python script to your production folder and run it. Fuck all that shit about git bran…
> Then I worked for a tech giant, and then for a high-growth unicorn. It shocked me how dilbertesque they both were. Full of politicians, and burnt out engineers in golden handcuffs who can't wait to get out, and meaningless business speak, and checked out employees who pretend they're "excited" about everything all the time. The young, wide-eyed engineers seem hopelessly naive to me now. I don't know this person. I…
At a startup, especially as a founder, you're encouraged to be a hero and give it your all partly because your incentives are really well aligned - if you succeed you could make $100mm or (a lot) more. As an employee, maybe you get fired or promoted, maybe your stock gains like 1% in value because of something you do or prevented... Some people are more checked out than others, but I agree, you're just an employee and it would be foolish to really put your heart and soul into your day job for most people
I have also experience close to burnout and recovered multiple times, in the process I have lost very precious relationships, and entire years were spent in darkness. I also have friends who have been in tech for close to ten years, and are close to burning out though they would never admit to such. This is the nature of the beast, all things that appear glamorous on the outside ( Hollywood, Finance, Tech, many nonpr…
> I also have friends who have been in tech for close to ten years, and are close to burning out I realize the audience here is probably mostly younger folks but 10 years doing anything is not that much time IMO. I think a 3rd or 4th burnout at 30 years of service is a lot harder to recover from, but I’m biased from my own experience.
There's a lot of good advice and insights in this thread. You have good reason for feeling this way, and all of the paths people have suggested - ways to move on and stay in tech; how to leave tech entirely; how to make it a hobby instead of a job; or some other middle ground - are valid ways to address this problem. But, I may suggest an additional option: do something about it. Build a business that eschews VC cult…
The problems you described are not technological, they're political. The Vulture Capitalists can be dishonest because they don't pay for their lies. The soulless corporations waste their time with political squabbles and poorly managed project because they capture enough profit to afford such inefficiencies. Burnout is not a problem because we still have a lot of younger and hopeful people to replace the burnt out ashes.
I personally see only two solutions: get out of the system, or change the system. Perhaps both. Note that the second one requires collective action.
I'm having similar issues, and i think i found a way out: stop playing their game. Don't make enterprise software. Don't write unit tests. Don't accept pull requests. Simply write software for yourself and have fun doing it. Forget refactoring code into modules, just fucking code. Don't worry about deployment with k8s, just copy the Python script to your production folder and run it. Fuck all that shit about git bran…
We have spent years, even decades, cultivating and grooming our own prisons. In the end, everything we cherish and value will be destroyed. It is 100% certain and there is no way around it. It's such a bleak thing to consider, yet at the same time it is an absolute truth.
After wrestling with these facts for years, I have come to understand the Zen koan about cherishing every moment drinking tea from a glass because to the master, the glass is already broken. Control of the larger world and the people within it are an illusion. In many respects, you are already dead and forgotten. The only thing you can do is admire the stunning beauty and sheer improbability of it all, and to be as kind as possible to those who deserve it, and to many who do not deserve it.
Watch an old movie and notice the many improvements in economic productivity, standard of living, quality of life.
E.g.: To get salt, had to travel to the local village. For this had to saddle up or harness a horse or two. Now can get the salt delivered or eat in a restaurant or drive to the village on a smooth road in a car with HVAC.
Car tires used to wear out in about 15,000 miles and were so vulnerable to rupture that had to carry a spare and know where the bumper jack was and how to change a tire. Now can get 75,000 miles from a set of tires.
Ever mess with a carburetor and ignition breaker points? Now have electronic engine controls with fuel injection. So, less maintenance, better fuel economy, fewer oil changes, longer engine life.
It goes on this way for cars and transportation more generally.
See how houses were built: Saws, hammers, and plaster. Now have electric saws, studs, beams, and panels already cut to size, and wall board. E.g., I had some wood to cut, with a saw got halfway through the first cut, then rushed out and got a circle saw, zip, zoom, cut all the pieces and they look really nice. Needed to drill some 1" holes; set aside the brace and bit in an old tool chest, got an electric drill, and done, really well, really nice clean holes, zip, zoom. Got the 1" spade bit on-line!
It goes on this way with hand tools, kitchen tools, yard tools, auto maintenance tools, etc. MUCH easier. E.g., kitchen tools can be awash in stainless steel; used to have to use expensive silver or rusty iron.
I do a single serving pizza I make myself: The ingredients for one pizza cost right at 40 cents with the flour at 9 cents. Fantastic agricultural productivity, along with the associated supply chain.
Tech has contributed to all of those.
I go to Google several times a day and to Amazon at least once a week. So, lots of use of tech.
Shopping, buying on-line, the shipping, tracking, paying -- lots of tech there, too.
Software? It can be a lot of fun! So, write some code, try it, get back errors, fix the errors, for that maybe put in some statements to trace the execution, and finally get it to run as desired. From then on, it won't wear out! And with that software often can just click on an icon or type in a short command and get the intended work done automatically! Boom!
A huge, biggie: Get rid of the typewriters! Beyond that, since I'm in math, get TeX for typing the math!!! Finally with TeX, the typing is no longer more work than the math, even math research! It took a LOT of transistors, processors, and computing just to get rid of the typewriters and get us to TeX.
Then get some astounding wonders, some of the most astounding astronomy yet: https://www.universetoday.com/145935/supermassive-black-hole...
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2020-080&fbcl...
A LOT of tech there!
Now that we know when the next big flash will come, we can have the telescopes looking and have the gravitational wave detectors expecting -- a prediction is for a big signal!
For work in an organization, it's long been with a lot of goal subordination, suck up to those above, piss on those below, and try to sabotage the people down the hall. But now with tech there are some advantages:
Clean, indoor work, no heavy lifting.
Safer work, e.g., won't get finger cut off in a saw or have a load of bricks fall on your head. Won't inhale or ingest stuff that will injure or kill you.
Won't get thrown off a horse or kicked by a mule.
Maybe will get a better tech job.
Maybe will find a good startup opportunity and get rich, as rich as Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, Carnegie, Morgan, Ford, etc., heavily just from typing with fingers.
For my laptop, my incremental backups are at 11 GB -- time to do another full backup! I just got two new SATA hard disk drives, 7200 RPM, 6 Gbps data transfer rate, 4 TB per drive (no use of shingled recording)!! IIRC, $65 each! Amazing!!!
Just got in the USPS mail, ~$10, the Rostropovich performance of the Dvořák cello concerto, B minor, with the Berlin Philharmonic and von Karajan: I lost my first copy in my recent move so wanted a replacement. Fast, easy search, ordering on-line! It's playing now: I've paid a LOT of attention to classical music and this performance is a good candidate for the most careful, passionate, and lyrical music and performance, art, "communication, interpretation of human experience, emotion", ever. Could never dream of such.
Net, a lot of good in tech!
What helped me was changing to a different industry. I went into electric vehicles and now I write drive by wire firmware. It was really interesting to find that certain industries NEED help from those that know how to write and scale software, because they are traditionally led my the dinosauric.