Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How did I get so unhappy working in tech?

thebuffgopher.substack.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 179 posts

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

#31

Post by seattle_spring »

jayski wrote: post #29
seattle_spring wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I mean... At least those minimum wage call center workers have an income, right? They should be happy they get to work in a chair. There are literally kids starving in Africa right now.

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

#32

Post by jerglingu »

unclekev wrote: post #10

> The solution seems to be setting a framework that fits with yourself. I think this is true. I tried time off and it only made things worse. It was only when i started putting a structured framework in place that I started enjoying tech again. Although, I still struggle after a big burnout incident. I'm one of those people who got burnt out, took 1.5 years off work "for myself" thinking it would help, and then when…

Can you expand on this structured framework? I also went through a severe bitterness (and cynical) phase, on top of blindly throwing myself into everything without regard for my sanity. So I fear myself walking down the same path you were on. I quit a few months back and have done zero tech-related work with no intention to come back anytime soon. But I wonder that when I do, nothing will have changed and I'm going to not even want to open and read the text in any arbitrary email, let alone "deliver" anything.

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

#35

Post by paulcole »

stephentmcm wrote: post #6

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.

Believe it or not, most people are worse writers than AI. This is why liberal arts degree programs are valuable. You get this kind of nonsense out of your system early and won’t end up thinking it’s profound and interesting to other people.

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

#36

Post by HWR_14 »

paulcole wrote: post #35
stephentmcm wrote: post #6

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.

Believe it or not, most people are worse writers than AI. This is why liberal arts degree programs are valuable. You get this kind of nonsense out of your system early and won’t end up thinking it’s profound and interesting to other people.

I find myself wanting to write, but petrified that what I'm writing is banal and I only think it's profound and interesting. I suppose I could write some and show it to someone or mail a sample to a publisher.

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

#37

Post by sidlls »

throwawayboise wrote: post #14
creakingstairs wrote: post #13

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.

Cognative dissonance because we know we are obscenely overpaid to build stuff that nobody really needs, while others work themselves into disability for a order of magnitude less pay doing things that are essential for civilized life.

We are not obscenely overpaid. We're relatively more well paid than other workers in our class, but we're still generally getting the short end of the stick.

Even people in my boat. I recently won a decent IPO jackpot at the company I have worked for a few years--have $3MM or so in investments as a result. The CEO has well over 100x that, and well over 10x any IC who's been at the company from day 1. There's no good reason for the CEO of this company to have benefitted to the tune of over $3Bn when ICs who've been at it as long and hard as he has might have cracked a few $10s of millions at best. Are these ICs disgustingly rich? Am I? Of course. But, relatively, we got shafted in comparison to the people who benefitted much more.

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

#38

Post by at_a_remove »

One or more of the following factors:

1) What you are working on. Is it yet another CRUD application? Alternatively: a project you are not getting to work on.

2) Who you are working for and with. Perhaps you have a bad manager or you just don't gel with them. Maybe you are not getting along with your co-workers, or vice versa.

3) How you are working. This is really very broad, from in-office to work-from-home, frameworks you don't want to work with, maybe you're not an Agile person, or the fluorescent lights keep flickering, or the push to microservices is obviously a bad idea or they were cheap with your computer. A lot to explore here. Some crossover with where.

4) When you are working. Always in a rush? Never stop "sprinting" only to find that the deadline you met meant nothing, and your project would not be looked at by stakeholders for another eight months? Too many hours, or the wrong hours? Or perhaps your time subdivided so finely that any progress bleeds to death from the finely-sliced task-switching that passes for the "multitasking" some manager thinks will lead to a free FTE?

5) Why you are working: for money, and you're not getting enough of it? Because you believe in the cause and you see the organization headed the wrong way?

So many possibilities ...

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

#39

Post by TapWaterBandit »

sidlls wrote: post #37
throwawayboise wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cognative dissonance because we know we are obscenely overpaid to build stuff that nobody really needs, while others work themselves into disability for a order of magnitude less pay doing things that are essential for civilized life.

We are not obscenely overpaid. We're relatively more well paid than other workers in our class, but we're still generally getting the short end of the stick. Even people in my boat. I recently won a decent IPO jackpot at the company I have worked for a few years--have $3MM or so in investments as a result. The CEO has well over 100x that, and well over 10x any IC who's been at the company from day 1. There's no good…

The greed and envy in this comment reminded me of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xcYLVdfFro

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

#40

Post by motohagiography »

Let's say this is the work of a persons mind - and not a GPT-3 writing prompt generator with a sentimentalizing filter to get social media to talk about brands, (and one which is learning to generate viral propaganda) - what must it be like to have dozens of people sincerely speculate as to whether you are a robot or not? It would be like being invited to participate in a Turing test but as it progresses, you find out you are the computer. Catchpas keep getting harder and harder, but it's probably nothing etc.

If there is a real person who wrote the OP reading this, these comments are evidence you have written provocatively, (don't read your press - weigh it) and that itself is a gift worth refining. However, if I'm offering sympathy to a robot, meh, I've felt it wasted more on better people. :)

Post reply on HN