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Ask HN: Who else is working on nothing?

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Re: Ask HN: Who else is working on nothing?

#221

Post by wildrhythms »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #37

Wow, I just wanted to say thanks a lot for posting this. I'm in a very similar boat. I was always very focused and goal-oriented in my younger days - a bit of a workaholic but generally enjoyed working hard. A number of changes since the pandemic have left me feeling very similar to you: 1. Like tons of other people, I re-evaluated my relationship with work during the pandemic. To be honest, it wasn't easy. I think a…

My outlook is: if you work in big tech today, whatever you're working on, in its final culmination, is just a means to clutter the internet with ads.

Re: Ask HN: Who else is working on nothing?

#222

Post by wildrhythms »

kirso wrote: post #206
thr0way120 wrote: post #151

The value proposition, honestly, has fallen off a cliff. If "they" can dangle things you really want (money, better lifestyle, interesting work) in front of you, then there is reason to get excited. Right now? Oh hell no. Entire tech industry is in the mode of getting rid of people, lowering standards, lowering pay checks, the work is boring and tedious. It is reasonable to simply not have any motivation to work on o…

Funny that you mentioned WebMD - they just released this cringe video to let people return to the office: https://www.vice.com/en/article/7kxqnx/dont-mess-with-us-web...

When I first saw this I thought it was a skit from The Onion. I fear we have reached some dystopian state of post-irony.

Re: Ask HN: Who else is working on nothing?

#223

Post by Tan-Aki »

Simply try to make everything you do about ultimately making the world a better place. It will give you your drive back. Stop thinking "me me me" all the time, but ask yourself "what can I do to help others?" The nuance is that, sometimes, in order to be able to take care of others you have to take care of/work on yourself first (simply keep in mind that you are doing that in order to come back stronger to be able to help others. Never loose sight of the bigger picture). That is what I believe one of, if not The, key to happiness (and therefore to finding your drive again)

Re: Ask HN: Who else is working on nothing?

#225

Post by johnnyanmac »

doctorwho42 wrote: post #111
mandeepj wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How wrong were we Nowhere! Social media brought out the true character of people; most (many?) of us are negative species, mix that along with bad people.

Ehh this type of thinking is reductive. The primary issues are a combination of nature vs nurture. The age of argument, the solution has always been some combination of both. But when you look at our western society over the past 60 years or so, you see that -fundamentally- the nurture part of the equation is being heavily influenced by capitalistic forces. For example, news used to be once a day, then 3 times a day,…

>Look for the guys running into the fray when everyone else runs away... Those people are just as human as you or me... They are the true character of the human species.

If we have to look to find them, are they really the "true" character? I'm sure if we look hard enough we could find a polite polar bear, but is that a "true" polar bear?

Re: Ask HN: Who else is working on nothing?

#226

Post by johnnyanmac »

granshaw wrote: post #152
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #37

Wow, I just wanted to say thanks a lot for posting this. I'm in a very similar boat. I was always very focused and goal-oriented in my younger days - a bit of a workaholic but generally enjoyed working hard. A number of changes since the pandemic have left me feeling very similar to you: 1. Like tons of other people, I re-evaluated my relationship with work during the pandemic. To be honest, it wasn't easy. I think a…

One question I’ve set out to answer is: what would I do if I were fired tomorrow? Understood that not everyone is in the position to switch to lower paying careers, start over, etc - but if you have some leash, what WOULD you do if you were fired tomorrow? (And I don’t mean short term like take a vacation then find another tech job - mean longer term like what kind of job will you be looking for next, or business to…

>I don’t mean short term like take a vacation then find another tech job - mean longer term like what kind of job will you be looking for next, or business to start, etc

I mean, the job I'd be looking for is another tech job?

I do have stuff I want to do in 5,10 years. Maybe even vague ideas of 20 years out. But I lack the funds and the expertise to pull it off. I'm sure many dream of being their own businessman or simply traveling and experiencing the earth without worries of rent. But even for tech workers that is a lifestyle that can't be maintained without some corporate kowtowing (or having a silver spoon).

Re: Ask HN: Who else is working on nothing?

#227

Post by antfarm »

ilrwbwrkhv wrote: post #193

I just want to say that if you get a chance, go to the underbelly of the tech world like the hacking / piracy / emulator forums and scenes. Tech has been made into this sanitized version of what tech was when we were growing up (over 30 folks) and I think it needs to be discovered because so much of our current experience with tech has been this pale, tasteless, flat designed pasty. But the joy a lot of us felt with…

> so much of our current experience with tech has been this pale, tasteless, flat designed pasty

So true. Just look at what became of Apple Computers, from the “bicycle for the mind” to lifestyle products for the consumption of social media.

Re: Ask HN: Who else is working on nothing?

#228

Post by whamlastxmas »

nlstitch wrote: post #96
whamlastxmas wrote: post #66

I have a lot of stuff I want to work on but completely lack the motivation/mental health/physical health to get into a consistent routine that lends itself to me getting these projects done I'm in my mid 30s and my preference would be to sit on a porch at a cabin in the woods and wittling a spoon next to a fire with a cup of tea. But I need to keep my skills sharp to stay employed so here I am, sitting in guilt over…

I can relate to some aspects. After more than 10 years in IT (Also mid 30s), I sometimes I have the feeling I've seen it all. Another framework, another paradigm.. getting more of those "Oh wait that new thing you seemed to have invented is 99% similar to this old tech from years ago but its now made hipster". I find myself scanning through news headlines, trying to up my dopamine while doomscrolling YT, but ultimate…

I thankfully never read news and I didn’t even know about the recent Israeli occupation until like a week after the attacks started. My life is much better for it, you should try it

Re: Ask HN: Who else is working on nothing?

#229

Post by epiccoleman »

pppoe wrote: post #168
epiccoleman wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found this video to be quite significant to me on the "nihilism" front : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jv79l1b-eoI

Thanks for the video. This is so encouraging.

I'm glad you enjoyed it. I really like that whole channel, there's a lot of great stuff there.

Re: Ask HN: Who else is working on nothing?

#230

Post by harryquach »

granshaw wrote: post #156
tenpoundhammer wrote: post #31

I found in my mid thirties that my perspective on what was important and desirable shifted significantly. Which led me to become disengaged from my desire to build side projects and learn new programming languages. It was a time were ecclesiastes from the Bible resonated a lot. After a while I just found out that I wasn’t interested in nothing but I had to rediscover what was important to me and what I valued spendin…

Do you worry that you won’t be able to keep up with the industry and get obsoleted and forced out of work or a certain comp level before you want?

I am in my late 30s and used to worry about this, but I’ve been in the corporate world long enough to know that I can learn whatever I need to learn to secure a decent, paying dev job.

I’ve also realized, far more important than knowing the latest framework or tool, is the ability to work well with people. This is the skill I’ve been working on most, and in my opinion is far more valuable.

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