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Why I Find Bullshit Work Intolerable

shubhamjain.co

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Re: Why I Find Bullshit Work Intolerable

#31

Post by jokethrowaway »

lijok wrote: post #15

OP does not understand risk management or product delivery and is therefore labelling it as "bullshit". And yet, OP should feel blessed. Not because of the bullshit work, but because they are one of a lucky few who have managed to land a career doing what they love. Speak to any other person that managed to do that, and they all know what OP is describing. My only advice for OP is - work on understanding the purpose,…

The corporate world is so inefficient that most of the job is bullshit. I routinely came up with solutions which worked better in a tenth of the times and a tenth of the resources and made product about them after the contract.

Working in a startup is an improvement - and you have to be way more flexible on wearing different hats (some of which may feel like bullshit but are actually important).

Working on your own with trusted parties is nirvana.

The bigger the organisation, the greater the inefficiency. The worst are government or contractors working with the public.

I stopped working with people who ever worked with the government an I have to de-bullshit engineers who spent too much time at FANGs and picked up a bunch of bad habits. Ex startuppers make the best employees, super product and user focused while shipping consistently.

Re: Why I Find Bullshit Work Intolerable

#32

Post by lolsal »

rmwaite wrote: post #27
lolsal wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There definitely is waste in big corporations, but not everything you don’t understand is waste.

Many times in my life someone tried to tell me something that I disregarded as wrong or misguided, only to (years! decades!) later realize the that they were right in ways I just couldn't understand yet. I suspect (and hope) this will continue for as long as I remain introspective and willing to learn and grow. I feel like this is one of those things that only time and the perspective it adds can teach you.

I agree whole-heartedly. I’ve wasted many hours in security committee meetings. But then a CVE was discovered and we were able to respond in minutes. Earned our compensation 10x over with that preparedness, even if a lot of being prepared looked like downtime.

Re: Why I Find Bullshit Work Intolerable

#33

Post by steve1977 »

CharlesW wrote: post #21
steve1977 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, you have basically killed your soul?

Who is better off: (1) A MAMAA employee who approaches their job with religious-like zeal, pouring their heart and soul into extended workweeks to feed the gaping maw of Big Tech, or (2) a 9-5 software engineer working at a company nobody's heard of, on projects they don't personally care about, leaving actual time, energy, and creativity for people, projects, and other things that they do care about?

If the 9-5 does leave enough energy and creativity, then probably (2). My problem is, it doesn’t. It eats up my soul.

Re: Why I Find Bullshit Work Intolerable

#34

Post by jokethrowaway »

jckahn wrote: post #16
vwcx wrote: post #5

"Contrary to popular belief, burnout isn’t caused by a lack of work-life balance. It’s driven more by the lack of ability to do meaningful work." Couldn't agree more. I wish I was more like my peers who don't seem to get as fully invested in their work (emotionally, mentally, etc)...but if I'm dedicating 40 hours a week to something, it's hard to continue if the work isn't aligned with what I define as meaningful. Li…

Getting paid well enough to afford a satisfying lifestyle is pretty meaningful, IMO. Is that not enough?

Absolutely not.

I want to spend the third of my life I spend working doing something meaningful which I enjoy doing.

I don't even spend the money tbh.

Re: Why I Find Bullshit Work Intolerable

#35

Post by jokethrowaway »

systemvoltage wrote: post #12
vwcx wrote: post #5

"Contrary to popular belief, burnout isn’t caused by a lack of work-life balance. It’s driven more by the lack of ability to do meaningful work." Couldn't agree more. I wish I was more like my peers who don't seem to get as fully invested in their work (emotionally, mentally, etc)...but if I'm dedicating 40 hours a week to something, it's hard to continue if the work isn't aligned with what I define as meaningful. Li…

Meaningful work will become boring. Pick your favorite dish and have it for 45 days straight and you’ll desperately want something else to eat. Ok, so the counter would be that we need variety of work. But, you can ask someone who travels a lot for work and see if they like this variety of places to see; they don’t. They get sick of variety. All of these discussions IMO make no sense to me. For every claim, I can fin…

I disagree, I never got tired of building my own products. I get tired of any job after 6 months, after I've seen anything there is to see and to deal with way too much bullshit

Re: Why I Find Bullshit Work Intolerable

#36

Post by lijok »

steve1977 wrote: post #30
lijok wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are attributing something to malice that can be adequately explained by stupidity. Few people are out there actively misleading stakeholders about why they're important. If that was the case, businesses would be rushing to fix that problem. What you're seeing is simply overly complex, highly inefficient product delivery pipelines, which have been grandfathered in, and would be too expensive and too risky to fix.…

> You are attributing something to malice that can be adequately explained by stupidity Oh I didn’t intend to do so, that’s what I meant with ineptitude.

My bad, I misread your comment

Re: Why I Find Bullshit Work Intolerable

#37

Post by steve1977 »

lolsal wrote: post #32
rmwaite wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many times in my life someone tried to tell me something that I disregarded as wrong or misguided, only to (years! decades!) later realize the that they were right in ways I just couldn't understand yet. I suspect (and hope) this will continue for as long as I remain introspective and willing to learn and grow. I feel like this is one of those things that only time and the perspective it adds can teach you.

I agree whole-heartedly. I’ve wasted many hours in security committee meetings. But then a CVE was discovered and we were able to respond in minutes. Earned our compensation 10x over with that preparedness, even if a lot of being prepared looked like downtime.

I‘m not sure if that’s the scenario OP describing.

In my experience, that would be a company that spends hours in security committee meetings and then fails to react appropriately in an actual emergency.

Re: Why I Find Bullshit Work Intolerable

#38

Post by throwawaysleep »

steve1977 wrote: post #14
throwawaysleep wrote: post #2

For older people, do you ever find what you are looking for, at least at a reasonable price? I was once the way of OP but then decided that fixing that would involve mostly eliminating other people (and I am highly risk averse, so doing my own thing is not acceptable to me) and I decided that was not feasible. So I embraced apathy and am now the time killing bureaucrat calling meetings about status codes that both OP…

So, you have basically killed your soul?

Refocused its desires on what is possible. But essentially, yes.

Re: Why I Find Bullshit Work Intolerable

#39

Post by jokethrowaway »

throwawaysleep wrote: post #2

For older people, do you ever find what you are looking for, at least at a reasonable price? I was once the way of OP but then decided that fixing that would involve mostly eliminating other people (and I am highly risk averse, so doing my own thing is not acceptable to me) and I decided that was not feasible. So I embraced apathy and am now the time killing bureaucrat calling meetings about status codes that both OP…

The government wants a world with mindless drones doing BS jobs.

If you want to combat that, you need to do your own thing, deliver value to your peers, inspire them to join you and create a bottom up economy filled with small businesses and not a socialist dystopia run by the government and their friends who own 99% of the "market"

Re: Why I Find Bullshit Work Intolerable

#40

Post by throwawaysleep »

tra3 wrote: post #17
throwawaysleep wrote: post #2

For older people, do you ever find what you are looking for, at least at a reasonable price? I was once the way of OP but then decided that fixing that would involve mostly eliminating other people (and I am highly risk averse, so doing my own thing is not acceptable to me) and I decided that was not feasible. So I embraced apathy and am now the time killing bureaucrat calling meetings about status codes that both OP…

Can you do a good job, be creative, within the boundaries of your role?

Just focus on what your boss sees and slash everything else to get time back.

So I neither do a good job nor practice any kid of creativity at work, but work is 15ish hours a week of actual tasks, so it doesn’t matter.

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