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Ask HN: Had enough – a need for a new beginning

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Ask HN: Had enough – a need for a new beginning

#1

Post by woolamanderguy »

I'm in my late forties and have wasted over 20 years of my life developing services and solutions in the advertising and web industry that enable companies to sell as much as possible. During this time, I was always expected to deliver more performance for less money. Maximizing profits for entrepreneurs who have no qualms - their sole goal (with exceptions proving the rule) is to accumulate as much money as possible, to the point where they no longer know what to do with it. I didn't really have a choice because in the heavily contested agency business you have to be thankful to find any clients at all. With my work, I have contributed to advancing surveillance capitalism, developing software that serves almost exclusively to promote sales and spreading worthless content. All results that exacerbate rather than alleviate humanity's problems. Lately, I've been trying to sell AI (specifically LLMs) that don't really work well in any application and waste enormous amounts of energy - and in most cases, classical, algorithmic approaches would be significantly more efficient.

I've had enough. I want to do something in my life that truly benefits humanity. Something that helps people live better and more sustainably. Something that helps save our planet. And something that contributes to my children having a better future than currently seems likely.

I'm very good with computers, have experience in system administration (primarily Linux) and can program. I'm also a good writer and able to communicate very well in English and German. I would also like to continue working with computers and the internet, but on projects that have real value, meaning, and dignity. And all of this should also bring in enough money so that I can provide my family with a decent standard of living, without us having to turn every penny over twice. And that seems to me a pretty hopeless endeavor. Or does anyone here know of any project or company that aligns with my values?

Anyone else share my experiences or feelings?

Re: Ask HN: Had enough – a need for a new beginning

#2

Post by peteforde »

I recently took a very hard turn from coding to building things: PCBs, MCUs, CAD, CNC, PnP. All of the acronyms.

Lower case engineering means that we can shift from building SaaS apps that won't exist in three years to prototyping solutions to real problems. To me, this is the place to start.

Re: Ask HN: Had enough – a need for a new beginning

#3

Post by woolamanderguy »

peteforde wrote: post #2

I recently took a very hard turn from coding to building things: PCBs, MCUs, CAD, CNC, PnP. All of the acronyms. Lower case engineering means that we can shift from building SaaS apps that won't exist in three years to prototyping solutions to real problems. To me, this is the place to start.

That indeed sounds like a hard turn, and an interesting one. Did you have any prior experience in creating hardware? Because otherwise I could not possibly imagine that this was possbile without a major (costly and/or time consuming) educational update.

Re: Ask HN: Had enough – a need for a new beginning

#4

Post by peteforde »

woolamanderguy wrote: post #3
peteforde wrote: post #2

I recently took a very hard turn from coding to building things: PCBs, MCUs, CAD, CNC, PnP. All of the acronyms. Lower case engineering means that we can shift from building SaaS apps that won't exist in three years to prototyping solutions to real problems. To me, this is the place to start.

That indeed sounds like a hard turn, and an interesting one. Did you have any prior experience in creating hardware? Because otherwise I could not possibly imagine that this was possbile without a major (costly and/or time consuming) educational update.

Short answer is that I'm a competent autodidact living in a time where it's easy to research anything with YouTube, ChatGPT and paid mentorship in a remarkably compressed amount of time.

In fairness, my father was an engineer and my grandfather was an inventor; 35+ years developing software and being in proximity to electronics and people building stuff is certainly part of my story. However, aside from the whole mental health / needing to chart a new path thing, the main thing that motivated me was watching inspiring creators on YouTube (Wintergatan, Stuff Made Here, Hacksmith etc) and realizing that a lot of the gap between me being the audience vs being a maker myself was fear of starting. I kind of had to give myself permission to change how I saw myself.

I am reasonably smart and I have a pretty decent work ethic, but the main thing I have going for me is stubborn determination and patience.

If you remember one thing from this, it's that learning without a specific end goal is pointless or even harmful. It's like going to a hardware store and buying every tool just in case. Instead, you need to identify a project that you feel passionate enough to finish. Then you do what engineers do: recursively break down big tasks into smaller tasks, and then go down whatever rabbit holes are required until you are finished. I recommend not setting (or telling anyone about) delivery dates.

Two resources that I highly recommend:

1. I had no idea that CAD - I highly recommend you skip right to Fusion, which is free for casual use - would be such a huge part of my life a year ago... but now I think that it's hilarious that this wasn't obvious from the start. I learned by following along with this video, step by step. It's 90 minutes long and it will take you about a week to complete. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mK60ROb2RKI

2. Too few people talk about how incredible ChatGPT is for circuit design and engineering. It is just as impactful as its ability to write code. However, when you hit a wall on what you can Google or watch, I highly recommend John Teel's Hardware Academy. It's an engineering mentorship platform, and the people there are excellent. You can get feedback on PCB design, manufacturing questions, suppliers. There's video courses, too. https://thehardwareacademy.com/

Re: Ask HN: Had enough – a need for a new beginning

#5

Post by woolamanderguy »

peteforde wrote: post #4
woolamanderguy wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That indeed sounds like a hard turn, and an interesting one. Did you have any prior experience in creating hardware? Because otherwise I could not possibly imagine that this was possbile without a major (costly and/or time consuming) educational update.

Short answer is that I'm a competent autodidact living in a time where it's easy to research anything with YouTube, ChatGPT and paid mentorship in a remarkably compressed amount of time. In fairness, my father was an engineer and my grandfather was an inventor; 35+ years developing software and being in proximity to electronics and people building stuff is certainly part of my story. However, aside from the whole men…

Thank you for this resourceful answer. Hardware might not be my ultimate goal, but some of your thoughts and conclusions are quite universal. I agree that ChatGPT is a valuable tool in certain areas. Education is one of them, as long as people don't solely rely on this platform and keep on questioning and verifying information via primary sources. It certainly has accelerated software development in my company as well, to a degree.

Re: Ask HN: Had enough – a need for a new beginning

#6

Post by getwiththeprog »

Advertizing is pretty much evil. Selling things to maximise profits only is a net loss for humanity. I feel differently about technology though. Technology can feed us, keep us warm and let us share information and culture. Maybe just get out of advertizing and do anything where you make valuable and useful things? So many options really. It doesn't matter if the bosses make more than you as long as the things the company does are decent.

Re: Ask HN: Had enough – a need for a new beginning

#7

Post by woolamanderguy »

getwiththeprog wrote: post #6

Advertizing is pretty much evil. Selling things to maximise profits only is a net loss for humanity. I feel differently about technology though. Technology can feed us, keep us warm and let us share information and culture. Maybe just get out of advertizing and do anything where you make valuable and useful things? So many options really. It doesn't matter if the bosses make more than you as long as the things the co…

Oh I love technology, don't get me wrong here. As I wrote: I still want to work with computers, software development, the web etc. The thing is, I don't want to feed (surveillance) capitalism anymore. But finding companies with decent leaders and half way decent pay, preferably those which aren't listed at stock markets and don't exist to simply increase shareholder value at any cost, has become increasingly difficult.

Re: Ask HN: Had enough – a need for a new beginning

#9

Post by shaftway »

I've bounced in and out of advertising tech, and I can tell you that this isn't unique to that business space. No matter what space you land in, try to establish yourself as someone who is self-driven and can define and tackle your own problems. And then find problems that you want to fix.

I'm back in the ad space at the moment (any port in a storm), and the project I'm working on addresses one of our viewers' and customers' biggest pain points. When it's ready for launch I'll p-hack the numbers to show that it's a win for the company too. And then I can sit back and know that I've actually made things better for people.

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