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Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

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Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

#481

Post by miki123211 »

People in this thread are complaining about how bad work is, but I believe school is even worse.

With work, you're at least not a "slave". You're (mostly) allowed to quit if it gets really bad, and you're ultimately responsible for where you work, what industry etc. With school (I'm thinking from primary to high-school here), you have no right to decide on anything. If you're learning things that don't interest you in the slightest, have to spend most of your time doing pointless, boring work and are surrounded by people you either don't like or actively hate... well... deal with it. Your age isn't yet greater than , so you're not allowed to decide for yourself. There's nothing you can do, especially if your parents aren't willing to listen. As long as there's no violence/abuse, the state won't step in, and all attempts at rebellion will be promptly squashed. Even if your parents do listen and let you go to school somewhere else, it's usually not that different. The curriculum is standardized, so you still learn the same boring stuff, and if you are somehow out of the norm (this matters for teenagers a lot), you will be, no matter where you go. I'm a blind person who has lived through this in secondary. I've known a lot of people in similar situations, blind people, LGBT people, people from different racial/ethnic backgrounds etc. There have even been cases where that kind of situation let to suicide.

Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

#482

Post by cryptica »

cryptica wrote: post #391

The description about the contrast between an easy, soul-less corporate environment and the insanely difficult startup environment where you get torn apart by vultures resonates very strongly with me. I think anyone who has worked for a good mix of startups and corporations will understand the extreme difference. And yes, being around a bunch of highly optimistic people inside corporations is depressing. And it's dep…

That said, a lot of cryptocurrency projects do nothing at all and add 0 or even negative value. It doesn't really affect value of the token though. To me this is the ultimate proof that we have entered into a post-productivity era.

Why other people don't seem to notice this is beyond me.

Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

#485

Post by jotm »

otabdeveloper4 wrote: post #408
TomMckenny wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All accurate and objective and good for everyone to know early rather than late. Moving a bit further from the specifics, it's worth noting that this is not a natural state of affairs. Humans evolved to be in groups of about 30-100 people who they knew their whole lives and thus making catastrophic deception nearly impossible. Likewise vast sums of wealth did not exist nor total social and fiscal isolation surrounded…

> Humans evolved to be in groups of about 30-100 people who they knew their whole lives and thus making catastrophic deception nearly impossible. A plausible just-so story, but still only that.

And what stops one from doing that today? It's not like anyone really knows more than a couple dozen or so people. Just stop taking in any information from outside your circle or town... The approach has got downsides, but damn the peace of mind might be worth it.

Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

#486

Post by Insanity »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #463
nicbou wrote: post #452

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 I've found a really nice perspective on this recently: An app can be a home-cooked meal [1] It's okay to build things that aren't popular, that don't scale, or that aren't economically viable, for the delight of a few us…

OT: someone close to me never tastes the food they cook, I can't understand that. You don't know how long to cook it, or how to season it, or if the balance of sour/sweet/salt/umami/whatever is right at the point you can fix it ... But that's more an analogue of "use your program before you release it".

I guess they do eat it though, and then improve the recipe for next time by adjusting what they like. More like an AI approach in that case :D

At least they are 'dogfooding' it and not just letting others eat it I hope :)

Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

#487

Post by Insanity »

cyborgx7 wrote: post #80
tonyedgecombe wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm afraid, depression might be the appropriate reaction to the state of things. The trouble with modern work is it's so intangible, there is no physical product at the end, no machine restored to working order, no field ploughed, just a pile of bits shifted around. I keep saying it here, I think for most of us we would be better off dropping the side projects and instead doing something with our hands. It might be b…

Alienation from the product of your labor existed before digitalization as well.

If I'm not mistaken it was Marx who said that people would be alienated from their product as they could not own the product created by their labor.

So yeah, well before 'digitalization' but after industrialization I suppose. Hence we'd have to go back in time quite a bit (at least in Europe) to be pre-industrialized to not be distant from the product of labor.

Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

#488

Post by dgudkov »

xiaolingxiao wrote: post #39

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…

This sounds so American to me. I grew up in Eastern Europe and general attitude towards work, life, and friendship is so much different. Some of the best friendships I've made were at the companies I worked for. I've seen cases where people make so good friendships at work that it even makes them postpone switching jobs to move up the career ladder.

Work is not everything in your life. Work is important for sure, but there are other sources of joy in life. I can't help but think that Americans miss so much in life because of their obsession with work, money, and social status. Hence such posts on HN.

Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

#489

Post by pacifika »

moneywoes wrote: post #163
xiaolingxiao wrote: post #39

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…

Well said. External gratification won't solve anything. Any advice to someone new in the industry to avoid burnout?

Choose based on what you want to do, not what other people want you to do.

Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

#490

Post by mboperator »

kmmlng wrote: post #462
mboperator wrote: post #398

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can relate to a lot of the things you've stated. I won't get into the specifics but I understand your experience of working at a tech giant. In my case, I decided to try to "play the game" for a while. After a few years, I realized clout, money, and the things it afforded were ultimately meaningless to me. Things like mentoring young engineers, hobbies, and organizing local student hackathons definitely took the ed…

How has turning to God changed your life? Did it change what you do or how you view the things you do? In other words, would your life look the same to an outside observer but there has been an internal shift in your mind?

I'll answer this one in reverse --

It changed my heart. Our actions stream outward from the motivations of our heart.

Prior to turning to God the motivations in my heart were shaped by societal constructs of success as a man. (Ephesians 2:1-3) Particularly influenced via hip-hop, tech, and stoicism.

My actions stemmed from that. I was moderately successful in material terms but the emptiness persisted. Moreover, my actions were hurting relationships I cared about because the motivation of my heart, however outwardly altruistic, ended up being self-centered.

Accepting Jesus as my savior started a change of heart. The motivation in my heart is now loving God and loving my neighbor as I love myself (Mark 12:30-31) and acting accordingly. It's a gradual process and I still have things to work through. But He has helped me overcome materialism, lust, and is (strongly) helping me overcome pride.

I don't want to speak for outside observers, but my dad and many old friends have commented on the change. Walking with the Lord is a completely different life for me. It's freedom.

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