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From Burned Out Tech CEO to Amazon Warehouse Associate

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Re: From Burned Out Tech CEO to Amazon Warehouse Associate

#201

Post by thrown_22 »

XorNot wrote: post #194
avgDev wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason I as a dev earn a lot more than our order picker where I work is that the software I have built is speeding up everything. I created massive improvements in efficiency. My high salary is justified because my work has a much bigger impact on the finances. It is that simple. I interview often to get a true market rate. Nobody would pay me what I'm making if the market for devs wasn't this good.

> is that the software I have built is speeding up everything. Your high salary isn't "justified" by anything except current market supply and demand. Which is to some extent, very much the natural case in point: a software developer is no value to me if what I need is a carpenter.

Supply and demand only work in the short term as an explanation why something costs the amount it does _right now_. Once enough time has passed for the markets to adjust then there is something fundamental that causes them to be stuck at a given level.

Software development is applied autism. There aren't many people on the spectrum and the ones of us lucky enough to be interested in computers (instead of say model trains) are making out like bandits because there's no one else who could do our jobs.

OP already covered why there's such a high demand for us. When you have a limited supply and unlimited demand wages increase. Or to put it another way: there are no other professions that can make 10 million for their employers in an afternoon by thinking really hard.

Re: From Burned Out Tech CEO to Amazon Warehouse Associate

#202

Post by tough »

avgDev wrote: post #115
antiterra wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most sinister thing about it is that we do need to honor those people who work incredibly hard and undesirable jobs, but by compensating them, not just worshipping them like heroes. Mike Rowe and the cabal that funded his character attempt to make the viewer feel self-righteous satisfaction merely from empty recognition of merit. He argues against a minimum wage because some jobs are ‘stepping stones,’ but this r…

The reason I as a dev earn a lot more than our order picker where I work is that the software I have built is speeding up everything. I created massive improvements in efficiency. My high salary is justified because my work has a much bigger impact on the finances. It is that simple. I interview often to get a true market rate. Nobody would pay me what I'm making if the market for devs wasn't this good.

so how much does an $avgDev make?

Re: From Burned Out Tech CEO to Amazon Warehouse Associate

#203

Post by adamwk »

dnissley wrote: post #154
tristor wrote: post #61

I read the article, and... I get it. But something about this just seems weird to me. I grew up mostly on a family farm, worked every day of my life in some capacity since I was 9 or 10 years old, and did shit jobs to pay for college (which I eventually dropped out of right before graduation). I don't think my route into tech is that different from many of the other folks I've worked with... this guy lived a /very/ c…

I think part of that feeling is coming from how we've been socialized in the middle/upper classes to perceive people with lower incomes working more physical jobs than us. It's no longer acceptable to be snooty towards people in these positions, but we haven't dropped the stigma totally, and now the acceptable way to view + interact with them is to act (in the performative sense, because many of us don't actually kno…

I just don't think you can provide an accurate view by working a job like this for six weeks and leaving right as it starts getting bad. I also think it is fair to dismiss anyone with millions in the bank who reports about their stints in a warehouse as an alternative take.

I'm not offended by the piece because I don't actually think the author is trying to give a critical take about manual labour. It didn't sound like he thought critically about the experience at all besides feeling good about himself. Instead this piece reads more like somebody recommending a trip to Bali.

Re: From Burned Out Tech CEO to Amazon Warehouse Associate

#204

Post by zB2sj38WHAjYnvm »

cheeze wrote: post #132
tristor wrote: post #61

I read the article, and... I get it. But something about this just seems weird to me. I grew up mostly on a family farm, worked every day of my life in some capacity since I was 9 or 10 years old, and did shit jobs to pay for college (which I eventually dropped out of right before graduation). I don't think my route into tech is that different from many of the other folks I've worked with... this guy lived a /very/ c…

It almost feels like... tourism? to me? Hard to explain, but I get what you mean.

I don't know? Does it? Why do you write like this?

Also, tourism is good? Getting new perspectives is good? Do you not do it? Is there anything wrong when you do it?

Re: From Burned Out Tech CEO to Amazon Warehouse Associate

#205

Post by Aperocky »

antiterra wrote: post #111

The worst of poverty tourism is when it is done impersonally without recognition of the inescapable circumstances of others. Do see how real people live and work, connect with them to their faces. Recount your difficult escape from a low-income origin. But: don’t think that you are one of them and able to advocate as a representative if you aren’t, a la Pulp’s Common People. We should encourage resilience, but be sym…

> But: don’t think that you are one of them and able to advocate as a representative

I don't see how the author did that. He advocated a change of mindset by dialing to an extremely different situation to solve his own issues/or other people with the same issues, not that the situation is great or perfect.

I don't see where he advocated for it. For what it's worth, his effort in the warehouse is already more than 99% of more privileged folks who has never needed to do that. I fail to see why this is being criticized.

The comments criticizing him as patronizing is in turn incredibly patronizing of the warehouse workers themselves, the irony.

Re: From Burned Out Tech CEO to Amazon Warehouse Associate

#207

Post by [deleted] »

SevenNation wrote: post #169

> I had what I would stereotype as a traditional Chinese upbringing in America, which meant my parents very much expected straight A's. Anytime a B happened, something had gone wrong. The explanation was never like you lack the talent or whatever, but that you didn’t work hard enough. It sounds like the author never got a chance to figure out the intersection between what he liked to do and what he was actually good…

[deleted]

Re: From Burned Out Tech CEO to Amazon Warehouse Associate

#208

Post by duped »

avgDev wrote: post #115
antiterra wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most sinister thing about it is that we do need to honor those people who work incredibly hard and undesirable jobs, but by compensating them, not just worshipping them like heroes. Mike Rowe and the cabal that funded his character attempt to make the viewer feel self-righteous satisfaction merely from empty recognition of merit. He argues against a minimum wage because some jobs are ‘stepping stones,’ but this r…

The reason I as a dev earn a lot more than our order picker where I work is that the software I have built is speeding up everything. I created massive improvements in efficiency. My high salary is justified because my work has a much bigger impact on the finances. It is that simple. I interview often to get a true market rate. Nobody would pay me what I'm making if the market for devs wasn't this good.

You're paid what it costs for you not to work somewhere else. This is largely decoupled from how much value you create.

The only kind of compensation that is correlated to value are sales commissions, which most devs don't make.

A lot of us get deluded from the fact that we're highly skilled labor that takes a ton of training and skill sets most people don't have, while at the moment we make products with zero marginal costs. It's not the latter that's as important as the former.

Re: From Burned Out Tech CEO to Amazon Warehouse Associate

#209

Post by sarchertech »

cercatrova wrote: post #180
BurningFrog wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can also write a very similar rant about how sedentary desk jobs are not sustainable with all the obesity related life shortening conditions it leads to :)

Obesity and weight gain in general is mainly caused by diet, not exercise. You can run 12 hours a day but if you eat 10k calories a day, you're going to end up fat.

I think the mainly part is correct, but 12 hours of running like 6-7k calories for an 150 lbs. person. As you get heavier it’s going to go up fast (and non linearly)—essentially any kind of extreme exercise is going to put an upper limit on your weight.

I’m unsure if your body can even process 10k calories in day. The basal metabolic rate for a 1000 lbs person isn’t that high.

Re: From Burned Out Tech CEO to Amazon Warehouse Associate

#210

Post by Balgair »

tristor wrote: post #61

I read the article, and... I get it. But something about this just seems weird to me. I grew up mostly on a family farm, worked every day of my life in some capacity since I was 9 or 10 years old, and did shit jobs to pay for college (which I eventually dropped out of right before graduation). I don't think my route into tech is that different from many of the other folks I've worked with... this guy lived a /very/ c…

> and going to work at an Amazon warehouse to get a reality check seems... patronizing somehow

The word you're looking for is : slumming

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/slum...

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