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I quit the tech industry (2015)

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Re: I quit the tech industry (2015)

#101

Post by PragmaticPulp »

nnoitra wrote: post #62

To become really succesful in a tech career the demands are simply too great even if you are in the top percentile in IQ. To go to a good university you literally have to be super focused in high-school and do all sorts of extracurricular activities and basically things that look good on a college application. No one cares if you were a caretaker for your grandma. But then once you are in university you haven't even…

> If you have intrinsic interest in CS that will get destroyed pretty quickly because you may be put on to some super boring project.

Potentially unpopular opinion: This is why I’m actually very bullish on graduates from famously demanding colleges like Ivy League and other competitive universities. To graduate, you can’t just be smarter than average and coast your way through to graduation. You actually have to work hard and be able to self-motivate to do hard things even when it’s not intrinsically interesting.

That doesn’t mean that graduates from average colleges can’t work hard, of course. It’s just much harder to tell if someone has learned to work hard or if they just coasted through life up until this point if you can’t look at their resume and see any particularly difficult achievements.

Re: I quit the tech industry (2015)

#102

Post by jseban »

ipaddr wrote: post #82
jseban wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You assign an enormous amount of special status to certain people who you happen to be related to by blood, and that's arbitrary. It works when it works, and it doesn't work when it doesn't. What natural law says it's better to spend time with/live only with people who are related to by blood? The only necessity for reproduction is sexual intercourse. A family is susceptible to the same abuse and corruption as any ot…

Divorces are between people not related by blood (usually). The reason you provide resources to blood relatives (kids) is to give your genes the best chance to survive.

What if a person not related by blood will give your kids better chances?

What says that the parent will necessarily be the "best" person for their child through their whole life, and not someone else? That's arbitrary.

You see no issues with swearing life long loyalty to blood relations? That's just going to be the optimal solution in every case? That's making it a little bit too easy don't you think?

Re: I quit the tech industry (2015)

#103

Post by oldandboring »

napolux wrote: post #15

“Rich kid cash stocks and stops working in tech to do whatever he likes” Come on.

Yeah it really snowballs at the end too, when he talks about opening a Patreon ("Yelp thought what I did was worth some cash, so maybe other people will too). Could you imagine a construction worker quitting her job and opening a Patreon, thinking it's realistic that people give her free money because she used to be productive on a job site?

That all being said, the first part of the post is relatable. Tech jobs really can suck the life out of you. And, at least for me, working for other people is really soul-draining. I felt this same way, dreading going back to work even when I was on vacation, the last time I worked on someone else's payroll.

Re: I quit the tech industry (2015)

#104

Post by oldandboring »

21723 wrote: post #49
yodsanklai wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sounds to me like a very selfish view of life It's not selfish not to have kids. And in western countries, spouses/parents can take care of themselves financially.

I'd argue that, while it may not be selfish to have kids, most people who are having kids do it for selfish reasons. They don't want to "die alone". They want to show that they can afford it. They want to vicariously get into Harvard and work in publishing (if traditional publishing still exists in the 2040s at all) and live some imagined high life... even though the probabilities are minuscule and most children are…

If you do end up having kids, I hope you come back here and re-read what you wrote, just for lolz. Privileged young people without kids have this whole philosophy that just all adds up on paper. Reminds me of listening to libertarians and communists.

Source: I have kids.

Re: I quit the tech industry (2015)

#107

Post by tootie »

I have a modicum of sympathy, but this is such incredibly first world problems. The tech isn't interesting so you dread going to work? And have abandoned an incredibly lucrative profession forever? 99% of my stress comes from people not systems. And 99% of my satisfaction comes from delivering a valuable product and getting recognition for it. I mostly do management these days, but the times I get to write code it's mostly a codebase that is over 10 years old and held together with duct tape and chewing gum, but it's used for a valuable public service so I love it.

Re: I quit the tech industry (2015)

#108

Post by morelisp »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #33
ptato wrote: post #27

I can't afford to leave my job, I would only be able to sustain myself for ~1 year. I think I would be satisfied if I only had to work half as much: 4 hours a day, 20 a week. Now I just need to find that job...

In my country (Netherlands), most employers are amenable - if not legally required - to allow you to work part-time, IIRC over half the workforce here works part-time - could be 36 hours (so you get an afternoon a week off, or a day off every two weeks, or a day off if you work 4x9 hours), 32, some even work only 24 hours. So basically it is possible, and I think in the US too you can negotiate to work less hours.

I believe it's legally required here in Germany, but in most cases you'll be first on the chopping block for layoffs, and you generally need to hide that you'll ask during interviews. (It's illegal to refuse an employee asking but not illegal to not hire you.)

Really bluntly, just as value-per-hour starts falling off rapidly after some point, it also increases super-linearly up to some point before that. Most overhead is constant regardless of if you work 24 or 40, you'll miss opportunities when you're not there, and you'll need to spend more time catching up when you are. That doesn't mean you can't work effectively, but I've watched multiple junior-mid devs think they've hacked the system but instead just forgo most learning/advancement opportunities.

If you're happy with the current salary and don't need any more fulfillment from your career than turning-the-crank, I guess go for it.

(In the US they'll just fire you, maybe even just for asking.)

Re: I quit the tech industry (2015)

#110

Post by notamy »

helpfulmandrill wrote: post #87
nonrandomstring wrote: post #37

We talk about externalities. A chemical company pours toxins into a river, an automaker knows its products kill X people per year. These are tangible, understandable. But we don't yet think of the effects on the workforce as social externalities. Industrial safety has made the workplace a much safer space physically, but not mentally. The reality is, a great many jobs make us sick. Depression, anxiety, heightened agg…

I wish I could favourite this comment. So insightful.

You can! If you click the timestamp next to the comment, there'll be a favourite button on the comment page.
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