Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

6 months ago, I left the bullshit industrial complex

joanwestenberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 204 posts

Re: 6 months ago, I left the bullshit industrial complex

#61

Post by keiferski »

It would be interesting if someone analyzed the “California communication style” and its effects on the startup industry. As someone that grew up on the East Coast, I often notice how the communication style on the West Coast is much less confrontational and more “everything is awesome”, which I think leads to the sort of fake enthusiasm the author grew tired of projecting.

Of course, there’s no lack of hype and BS in NYC/DC/Boston, but there seems to be a much more developed culture of criticism and analysis than in California. And so the default attitude on the East Coast is a bit more cynically pragmatic, which is both good for the above reasons, but also less imaginative and more restricted - which is why SV has more “dreamers” that do crazy things.

Hope I’m not firing off too many East Coast vs. West Coast battle shots here :)

Re: 6 months ago, I left the bullshit industrial complex

#62

Post by yetihehe »

shiroiushi wrote: post #52
zoul wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are we demonstrably getting better open source software? By what metric? (Not sure myself, asking in good faith.)

I sure don't see it. When I look at how fast FOSS advanced between the late 90s and the mid 00s, and compare to after the '08 meltdown, it doesn't look the same at all.

When you have small domain, any progress can be seen as big. Now when you have many millions of lines in linux kernel, half a million new lines is "oh, just another module". The same with whole foss domain. It's so big now that progress is seen as slow. Comparing Blender now to Blender in 2014 will show you how big progress we still make, just as an example.

Re: 6 months ago, I left the bullshit industrial complex

#63

Post by rrr_oh_man »

roenxi wrote: post #22
zdragnar wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing about the quote is related to gainful employment or monetary transaction. It is entirely about the prospect of technology serving people by freeing their time from chores to pursue luxury activities. Instead of that expectation, the reality of technological advancement that AI has given us so far has been to do those pursuits of pleasure for us, while we still have to do mundane, unfulfilling chores in our da…

Something can be a joke and still be worth taking seriously. In this case, the joke is misleading on an important topic - the existence of AI changes economic realities but has no bearing on how humans spend their leisure time, or how much of that leisure time they have. In fact, it probably will increase the amount of leisure time available on net since it is freeing us up as a species from needing to do a bunch of…

> In fact, it probably will increase the amount of leisure time available on net since it is freeing us up as a species from needing to do a bunch of artistic and creative chores.

Historically, that has just been not true.

Re: 6 months ago, I left the bullshit industrial complex

#64

Post by langsoul-com »

Good on them, I applaud them for deciding to change even at the cost of a fat check.

I would not, my bank account really matters Integrity might sooth my soul, but not my retirement.

Life increasingly feels like a trade off between integrity and living in modern society.

Re: 6 months ago, I left the bullshit industrial complex

#65

Post by atoav »

zoul wrote: post #37
atoav wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tech is now a mercenary in the battle for people's attention and/or a fraction of their monthly money. The number of people in tech grew in absolute terms. That also means the fraction of people giving back to open source also grows and we are getting better open source software. Many however don't give back, they just take.

Are we demonstrably getting better open source software? By what metric? (Not sure myself, asking in good faith.)

Arguably by the metric of my own annecdotal evidence.

Re: 6 months ago, I left the bullshit industrial complex

#66

Post by imiric »

Animats wrote: post #56

Advertising. That's the problem. Computing has become a branch of the ad industry. What we need is a big tax on advertising and marketing. In the US, it doesn't create more demand, because most people are spent out. It just moves demand around. So much of that effort is a net lose that pushes prices up. (This might be politically possible during an "anti-tech" Trump administration.)

Advertising is a big part of it, sure. But it is merely a component of late-stage capitalism. Using psychological manipulation to sell products is the most profitable way of sustaining a business we've invented yet, but we have many other ways to unscrupulously exploit one another for financial gains. Humanity has been doing that for millennia, and we've gotten very good at it.

Re: 6 months ago, I left the bullshit industrial complex

#67

Post by keiferski »

extr wrote: post #24

This person acts like they were disseminating propaganda for the reich. I get that doing corporate PR probably feels very cynical in general but coaching founders not to fumble the bag in an interview or writing blog posts about funding rounds are on the lesser evils side I think. Who is the victim of manipulation there? VCs? Lol

You don’t need to be not-doing evil things to feel dissatisfied with your work. There was a line in the post about not having written anything they actually believed in for a long time.

That kind of thing weighs one’s soul down, even if it’s not “evil” in a grand sense.

Re: 6 months ago, I left the bullshit industrial complex

#68

Post by ahartmetz »

monero-xmr wrote: post #18

If you are grounded in religious faith, your whole life won’t revolve around whatever your job is. The author seems very intertwined with his job and the output. I’m not saying you shouldn’t analyze the meaning of your work, but he seems fairly un-anchored

There have been plenty of bad and religious people. Doesn't seem to make much difference.

Re: 6 months ago, I left the bullshit industrial complex

#69

Post by herewulf »

cen4 wrote: post #10
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #3

While this author is of a younger generation, this really resonated with me as a Gen Xer. I feel there is so much disillusionment among folks that came of age during the 90s because there was so much techno optimism then, and it didn't quite turn out like we envisioned. Two things made me think about this recently: 1. I saw a Reddit post that was titled something like "The 90s were peak humanity. Enough tech to make…

Well people have discovered you can make cash irrespective of the quality of tech you pump out. Two routes have been discovered and milked to high heaven - Financial engineering - this is where if you accumulate more capital and faster than the next guy you win. Add to that globalization ie arbitrage on interest rates/tax rates/forex/labor cost/rent/real estate/govt regulation in generating capital. Demand engineerin…

I don't disagree but I think it's sad to see the word "engineering" used in this context. What you describe I would call highly optimized bullshit artistry.

Maybe the watering down of the term started with "social engineering". Engineers build things that do things and/or are built to last.

Re: 6 months ago, I left the bullshit industrial complex

#70

Post by Ekaros »

tmpz22 wrote: post #7
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #3

While this author is of a younger generation, this really resonated with me as a Gen Xer. I feel there is so much disillusionment among folks that came of age during the 90s because there was so much techno optimism then, and it didn't quite turn out like we envisioned. Two things made me think about this recently: 1. I saw a Reddit post that was titled something like "The 90s were peak humanity. Enough tech to make…

Technology innovation's highest priority has always been to move money from the middle class to the ownership class. Why so many people assume altruistic outcomes is beyond me. Why so many people see any other outcome of OpenAI then increased income inequality is beyond me.

In one sense I wonder if there ever was intention to make middle class rich... Increasing circulation allowed them to spend more money thus increase value of corporation same goes for pensions. Which then later were screwed out of the money stored there. Their value was to pump the stocks higher...
Post reply on HN