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How did I get so unhappy working in tech?

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

#161

Post by Trasmatta »

csande17 wrote: post #106
onion2k wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. when I started in the 90s I often got several months of focused work without many interruptions. I did that too. Quite often the project failed after those months because we'd built the wrong thing, or the landscape had changed, or the customer had failed to spec what they needed well enough. This was the "Waterfall" methodology, and Agile, with all its meetings, is specifically designed to fix that problem.

My favorite Agile failure case is when you have all the meetings and still fail, because you spent all your time on Agile paperwork instead of designing and building a product.

Exactly. Teams that drink the Agile Kool-Aid seem to fail and build the wrong things just as often.

Besides, why can't we be lower case agile, and avoid all these meetings anyway? I write very detailed PRs with high level summaries, screenshots and videos, explanation of risks and trade offs, and deeper technical dives. Everything you need to know about what I'm working on is literally right there. I push up code early and often, it's not like I just want to sit in an isolated cave for 6 months and then emerge with a finished product.

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

#162

Post by Trasmatta »

onion2k wrote: post #107
theknocker wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah and it doesn't. In practice, it just enables managers to become even more useless by blaming devs for their poor project management.

Agile projects can still fail obviously, but when they do they tend to fail in smaller ways (eg 4 weeks late instead of 6 months late, or almost hit the requirements instead of completely missed). That's a massive win.

And in the process, you burn out your devs, and have constant churn. How late are things happening in the long term, because teams prioritize the Agile rituals over cultivating long term technical excellence, craftsmanship, and team satisfaction? The way many teams practice Agile has a huge opportunity cost that's very difficult to measure, but still real.

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

#163

Post by HWR_14 »

paulcole wrote: post #42
HWR_14 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If you want to write, write. The funny thing about writing is that everybody wants to have written but almost nobody wants to write. If you start writing, it’s going to be bad, but that’s what almost all writing is. If you want to get better, keep practicing, start sharing it with others, get feedback, and repeat. Or show it to nobody and write for yourself. I studied creative non-fiction writing in college. A big pa…

I'm less concerned with the craft of writing than choosing a boring repetitive topic. And trying to write a nonfiction piece that no one wants to read subject matter wise.

I fully expect the craft to suck, but I got over the fear of rewriting already. I'm just frightened of producing something that I pretend is profound and everyone else thinks is obvious. That's a totally different fear

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

#164

Post by redisman »

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.

Bots are trying to get us to resign so they can take over our jobs

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

#166

Post by paulcole »

HWR_14 wrote: post #163
paulcole wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want to write, write. The funny thing about writing is that everybody wants to have written but almost nobody wants to write. If you start writing, it’s going to be bad, but that’s what almost all writing is. If you want to get better, keep practicing, start sharing it with others, get feedback, and repeat. Or show it to nobody and write for yourself. I studied creative non-fiction writing in college. A big pa…

I'm less concerned with the craft of writing than choosing a boring repetitive topic. And trying to write a nonfiction piece that no one wants to read subject matter wise. I fully expect the craft to suck, but I got over the fear of rewriting already. I'm just frightened of producing something that I pretend is profound and everyone else thinks is obvious. That's a totally different fear

>I'm just frightened of producing something that I pretend is profound and everyone else thinks is obvious. That's a totally different fear

Yes and my point is that what you produce won't be profound and people will think it's obvious. Write it anyway. Or don't.

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

#167

Post by coward123 »

twblalock wrote: post #89
ipaddr wrote: post #44

As someone who has been in the industry for 20+ years I've noticed changes that may have lead to this point. Daily standups, meetings, gluing frameworks Daily standups are is a one size solution to a communication problem. Daily standups shouldn't be necessary with a team constantly communicating. Daily standups leads to cutting projects into small daily tasks. This leads to a system of micromanagement and it doesn't…

Being in meetings means you get to be in the room when decisions are made. Even if you aren't an active participant, you get to at least listen in. Almost all problems are really people problems, and people problems can only be solved by communicating with other people. Some engineers seem to want to work for long stretches uninterrupted, like monks copying sacred texts. That is not the way to succeed. To succeed you…

>Being in meetings means you get to be in the room when decisions are made.

That was never my experience, especially if those meetings were standup meetings as the parent poster was referring. The standup meetings were a lot of feel good so the business could cajole the developers. Any actual coordination that needed to happen was outside those meetings among developers, with the business making their own decisions and dictating from on high.

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

#168

Post by HWR_14 »

paulcole wrote: post #166
HWR_14 wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm less concerned with the craft of writing than choosing a boring repetitive topic. And trying to write a nonfiction piece that no one wants to read subject matter wise. I fully expect the craft to suck, but I got over the fear of rewriting already. I'm just frightened of producing something that I pretend is profound and everyone else thinks is obvious. That's a totally different fear

>I'm just frightened of producing something that I pretend is profound and everyone else thinks is obvious. That's a totally different fear Yes and my point is that what you produce won't be profound and people will think it's obvious. Write it anyway. Or don't.

Thanks for the encouragement. In person people are far more likely to tell me not to bother, and I'm not going to pretend it doesn't affect me. I think everyone reacts to their real-life friends' expectations and assumptions.

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

#169

Post by throwaway6532 »

5350-uiop-1130 wrote: post #138
DarkCrusader2 wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have been having similar thoughts recently. With just 4 years into my career (working at a FAANG for last 2), I too am looking around for a job. But it all looks the same corporate BS, providing "business value", grinding for promotion, being a small cog in a enormous machine, dealing with middle managers and their egos and endless insecurity, estimations and deadline chasing, I feel so done and tired. Add the bull…

same, i'm in a job where i can sort of coast, it's stressful, the people mostly, but the work is easy. i lost interest in dealing with all the bs and whenever i try to look at the job market i just feel too demoralised to go through all the hoops just to get another job where i will be dealing with the same or new kind of bs. i feel like this may be my last coding job after 15 years, maybe i can do another 2-3 more.

>i feel like this may be my last coding job after 15 years, maybe i can do another 2-3 more.

This is how I feel after only 7 years, and I need to do another 9 more :(

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

#170

Post by ohiovr »

I too became highly dissatisfied with technology and the pursuits therein. I knew this was not what God wanted for me so I gave it up and now working a factory job. I never quite made it in tech. But there is more reason for this than simple incompetence. It was never something I was supposed to do.
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