Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

Post by makapuf » Tue, May 05, 2020, 12:18 PM UTC

OnACoffeeBreak wrote: post #525

makapuf wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thats exactly what i did while working on dreaded big data. Got myself a microcontroller, implemented a small arm console and write fucking low level C code optimized the heck of cpu cycles for tiny games, no code reuse, no interfaced, no deadlines, no refacto, no security, no network, no politics. Barely version control (with appropriate "update" commit messages). Kept me sane while doing those things at work.

I have a similar dream, but it involves starting from the ground up: - Implement a CPU and peripherals in an FPGA - Throw together an OS - Make a handheld game console Why? Because it would be fun to remind myself of the "first principals" (not talking physics here) and play around with it. For now, I'm playing around with Raylib [0] and Allegro [1] which are C game libraries. Do you have a link to your console hardw…

Post by krebs_liebhaber » Tue, May 05, 2020, 12:22 PM UTC

remir wrote: post #62

I'm bored of tech, apps, gadgets and all, despite the coollness factor. I was fascinated by technology when I was growing up, but I feel like the world's pressing needs and problems are not addressed because there's no "good money" to be made by solving them, which is absurd. I wish beauty, wisdom and optimization would be better valued so we could find pleasure in designing things and cities with beautiful architect…

Post by mark_l_watson » Tue, May 05, 2020, 12:33 PM UTC

invsblduck wrote: post #199

dkdk8283 wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

i'm about 40 yrs old - been working in tech (with linux) since the late 90s. gave my life to it, lost my physical and mental health; burned out numerous times. can't stand this industry anymore. moral of the story: 99% of people still don't understand the nature of software. very few people--like rich hickey (clojure), or fpb (mythical man-month)--seem to get it. tech is mainstream and most people are missing histori…

Post by abdullahkhalids » Tue, May 05, 2020, 12:38 PM UTC

zozbot234 wrote: post #414

arvinsim wrote: post #385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think technology is the problem. I think the institutions that install or preserve the structures that cause a lot of people misery is the problem.

There's a reason for those institutions, though. Within any social group larger than a primitive tribe, you can't coordinate pro-social behavior or resolve disputes without some formal institutions and structures of sorts. We've got to give the anarcho-primitivists credit where credit is due: at least they understand what it would take to get actual anarchism to work!

Post by Hendrikto » Tue, May 05, 2020, 12:42 PM UTC

makapuf wrote: post #36

battery_cowboy wrote: post #2

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…

Thats exactly what i did while working on dreaded big data. Got myself a microcontroller, implemented a small arm console and write fucking low level C code optimized the heck of cpu cycles for tiny games, no code reuse, no interfaced, no deadlines, no refacto, no security, no network, no politics. Barely version control (with appropriate "update" commit messages). Kept me sane while doing those things at work.