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How did I get so unhappy working in tech?

thebuffgopher.substack.com

21–30 of 179 posts

Re: How did I get so unhappy working in tech?

#21
post #9

you should work for a month in a 3rd world country call center for minimum wage. you have it way too good, be grateful

Gratitude is a good thing, but it’s not constructive to minimize someone’s happiness by comparing their situation to that of others. A shit sandwich with amazing bread still tastes like crap.

Re: How did I get so unhappy working in tech?

#22

GPT-3 post? This rabbles with no direction and feels like something AI would write. There's also an odd jump at the end like it's trying to talk about gaming/MtG but doesn't at the same time.

Author is 20 according to bio.

It’s probably reasonable to expect GPT-3 and 20 year old tech guys to sound very very similar. The tech will make its way up the age ranges.

Re: How did I get so unhappy working in tech?

#24

GPT-3 post? This rabbles with no direction and feels like something AI would write. There's also an odd jump at the end like it's trying to talk about gaming/MtG but doesn't at the same time.

One possible explanation is that he might be experiencing depression. It's probably not the first thing you would think of when you see scattered writing, but since it's an article about how he's unhappy, it could be a reasonable explanation. Unhappiness can definitely interfere with thinking and writing, if it's severe enough. That's just a thought. He also says the idea is "disjointed". Often too, when you are feeling uncertain about your life, it sometimes helps to put down a stream-of-consciousness collection of thoughts to see if anything provides meaning.

From reading this article further, I think this a depressed person trying to make sense of their world and emotions.

Re: How did I get so unhappy working in tech?

#25

I _know_ I have it really good. But I still feel unhappy and unfulfilled. I'm planning to have a sabbatical next year to see how that pans out for me. I honestly don't know how my parents worked until retirement.

Honestly I think part of the problem is that we are telling ourselves repeatedly how good we have it and self censoring the problems.

"try working in a call center" says someone below in this thread in an effort to belittle concerns.

"They just raised time off from 15 days a year for the new hires isn't that great! Besides its not googly to complain" says the Google employee.

"Yeah it is an evil megacorp but the pay and conditions are amazing." Says the FB employee trying to demonstrate how they have the best job I'm the world while the social status of the job falls due to scandals.

There's a bit of a need among people in tech to highlight success. "I was bullied in school but look at my job! Isn't my job amazing!". They'll say this and defend it to death even if it's not quite true. They'll even attack others who ask "but are you really enjoying it or just letting yourself be worked to death for a small perceived boost in social status your job may bring?"

And don't get me wrong the pay here is good. But the work life balance is amongst the worst in all jobs I've ever held. By far. If I'm being honest im just holding out for as long as I mentally can to get a nice financial boost in life then I'm getting the fuck out of here. The free food and onsite gyms feels like a cynical ploy to get you back to the desks sooner and to keep you there before breakfast and after tea. Even second world countries will have more time off per year available and they'll have that for much lower stress jobs.

I think we've all got to be honest with ourselves here. I met a friend who works 9 days a fortnight in a different industry. "Yeah we get free food high pay and good benefits too. I really like spending 5 days in a row with family every two weeks too!".

I sometimes forget that we're waaay past the golden age where the big tech companies were growing so fast and were unique. The benefits in the industry are becoming somewhat of a norm in any big corporate environment in any industry. But the whip cracking performance management honed by tech company metrics isn't a norm.

If you find yourself exhausted day after day and miserable while your explaining to friends and family that you have a special unique job with soo many benefits realize that you've been manipulated. You're doing the thing we nerds do where we want to show how successful we are but in reality we're leaving ourselves wide open to exploitation as we fight to maintain the illusion to others. No one in other industries works like I've seen tech workers in silicon valley work. It's not normal and not healthy. The pay is high but the cost is higher.

Re: How did I get so unhappy working in tech?

#26

GPT-3 post? This rabbles with no direction and feels like something AI would write. There's also an odd jump at the end like it's trying to talk about gaming/MtG but doesn't at the same time.

Exactly what GPT-5 would say.

I'm starting to think these questions about whether GPT-3 produced the original article are just what GPT-5 would post to sow doubt about whether it could be as advanced as it secretly is.

Re: How did I get so unhappy working in tech?

#27
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or maybe English isn't the writers first language? It does seem to contain an odd amount of things that seems completely random.

Naw. He has links to a podcast where you can hear him speak. The "Asian Hour" lol. His english is legit. The man Linus is real... the post, however, could be GPT-3. Definitely doesn't match up with his talking.

Good research. Is this going to become common from now on? What do we do when AI content and human content are indistinguishable?

Re: How did I get so unhappy working in tech?

#28
post #9

you should work for a month in a 3rd world country call center for minimum wage. you have it way too good, be grateful

This comment demonstrates the fallacy of relative privation [1], is unhelpful, and generally detracts from having a meaningful conversation.

All problems can be compared to some other worse problem. It does not almost ever mean the original problem at hand is not worth giving attention.

[1] https://academy4sc.org/video/fallacy-of-relative-privation-a...

Re: How did I get so unhappy working in tech?

#29
post #9

you should work for a month in a 3rd world country call center for minimum wage. you have it way too good, be grateful

This comment demonstrates the fallacy of relative privation [1], is unhelpful, and generally detracts from having a meaningful conversation. All problems can be compared to some other worse problem. It does not almost ever mean the original problem at hand is not worth giving attention. [1] https://academy4sc.org/video/fallacy-of-relative-privation-a...

I understand your point, but I still defend mine.

I wasnt trying to say you can always find a worse situation than yours. My point was more, that being an engineer who works in a comfortable chair for a great salary, is an amazing situation, if you're not happy with it, maybe switching situations will help, but consider that maybe you need to be more aware of how good you have it and find happiness within yourself

Re: How did I get so unhappy working in tech?

#30

I _know_ I have it really good. But I still feel unhappy and unfulfilled. I'm planning to have a sabbatical next year to see how that pans out for me. I honestly don't know how my parents worked until retirement.

Honestly I think part of the problem is that we are telling ourselves repeatedly how good we have it and self censoring the problems. "try working in a call center" says someone below in this thread in an effort to belittle concerns. "They just raised time off from 15 days a year for the new hires isn't that great! Besides its not googly to complain" says the Google employee. "Yeah it is an evil megacorp but the pay…

Sounds like your experience is very different than mine. Do you work at faang, maybe Amazon?

I feel my work life balance is absurdly nice, I’ve actually worked in a call center, I could go on… but my theory is that when I am feeling mini-burnout, it’s (well, (a) legit need to better attend to other pets of my life, and counteract being a homebody from Covid… but also)

.. but also one factor is when I worked for a call center, I knew I could do better. Now that I’ve ‘made it’—relative to my old position-it’s like, now what?

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