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6 months ago, I left the bullshit industrial complex

joanwestenberg.com

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

#81

Post by mihaaly »

Thank you for your honest words, I needed that.

I am one of the tiny wheels in the corner of this industry in an organization not built on top of loose bullshit from the start with the speed of light but made to build useful tools for engineers decades ago. However along the road the 'do whatever that looks good' overruled the 'do something good' in the competition with the pretentious capitalists and their servants wandering in all corners of the industry now poisioning good places with attitudes they learned and grown with in bad places and now being considered 'experts of the industry', not to mention the need of survival pushes you in this direction, the must pick up the indutry trends or die panick makes you do things you hate, and all this sweeped in to my low level of building parts so I have to make things that look good with degrading quality tools and degrading quality operating system built to look good to sell instead of helping the user so my every day, yes, every day work is a piss in headwind uphill. The products of the industry serves itself rather than the users, we can do a lot very fast that we wouldn't need to do if things were made right not pretentious. The life got difficult on a whole different level, not easier, with the products of the industry. I see little option than getting out, it is poisioned to all parts now. I have two babies so it is hard and very risky but I will need to show example to them soon and this is not something to show with integrity. Not to mention that staying is also risky when you are increasingly handled as commodity (Human Resources is a very hones title indeed!!). The previous personality of yours made this happen with the likes but still thank you for not doing it anymore and for spreading your story. I might never be in a position to work with you but if I will I will recommend you.

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

#82

Post by surfingdino »

Public Relations used to be known as Propaganda. It rebranded, because of the use of its techniques in war, but it's still based on grabbing attention on the masses who are then put through the sales funnel. It doesn't matter what you are selling, all that matters is that you follow some basic rules. It is not for people with conscience or those who are able to see that what is being sold is not good for the buyer. One of the early commercial successes claimed by that field human activity was successfully encouraging women to smoke cigarettes by hijacking women's liberation movement. When you start that low and are paid more to do more of it, you have to choose money or conscience.

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

#83

Post by flohofwoe »

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…

> during the 90s because there was so much techno optimism then

Was there? I remember the 90s as an intermittent software dark age we had to crawl out for the next decade until things started to improve around 2010. The unbearable OOP hype, turds like CORBA and Itanium, UML, "Enterprise scale" software development with Java, the first big VR hype cycle, the worst of the desktop operating systems won (Windows), and I could go on and on... there was also the same amount of human bullshitters in important positions.

We are much better off today than in the 90's in that good stuff can actually win traction (at least as long as no money is involved - once there's money involved, the bullshitter will home in like flies on a pile of shit).

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

#84

Post by mordae »

seoulmetro wrote: post #44
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…

Tech is fine. It's the money we made along the way that ruined it. Somehow money ruins everything. The internet just made it easier for people to extract money from everything.

Sadly it's not money. It's inequality. To build a stable business, you need to carer to the rich more then to anybody else.

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

#85

Post by keiferski »

tayo42 wrote: post #80
keiferski wrote: post #61

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 i…

Everyone in silicon valley is a transplant.

Sure but there is still a particular communication style that prevails, and people adopt it, or try to adopt, to fit in. It’s less about the accent or vocabulary and more about the tone.

A lot of this was parodied pretty effectively by the Silicon Valley TV show.

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

#86

Post by Muromec »

Arainach wrote: post #27
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

Belief in a higher power is not a substitute for finding goodness in what you do. I agree - with rose tinted glasses, there was a period that lasted all the way to shortly after the release of the iPhone where it was reasonable to be (and much of society was) excited about the possibilities of technology. Those times are dead. Financial engineering and the monetization of every piece of user data, ever flat surface,…

Belief in higher power gives you the coordinate system that is not moving with the train. Doesn’t have to be religious really, bit it gives more credibility if the value system if X thousand years old.

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

#87

Post by quaintdev »

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…

There's this comment that I read said that the world really did end back in 2012. Because today's world seems way different than it was before 2012.

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

#88

Post by Muromec »

tern wrote: post #59
beachy wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anchoring your life to a set of beliefs that, by necessity, are entirely unanchored by reality is not a strategy that works for everyone.

Not beliefs, but practices and experiences that appear to reveal truths otherwise inaccessible

That’s just acid, no religion required for that

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

#90

Post by BerislavLopac »

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…

> The 90s were peak humanity

Yeah, sure. At the same time a large European country was falling apart in a bloody and cruel war that saw many innocent people outright murdered or displaced.

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