The Gang Has a Mid-Life Crisis
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The Gang Has a Mid-Life Crisis
1–10 of 297 posts
Re: The Gang Has a Mid-Life Crisis
#2It really does feel like most tech leaders are having an internal struggle that they externalize and make all of our problems.
Have you seen Musks Twitter timeline? That guy is so chronically online and desperate to be liked that it's just sad. How can you be the richest man in the world and yet so deeply pathetic?
Same with Zuck's attempt at being "cool" now and don't even get me started on Benioff's whole weird "Aloha" thing.
Deeply insecure, unhappy people, despite having all the wealth in the world. And they're gonna make sure all of us are just as unhappy, because if they can't buy happiness, why should anyone else have it?
Re: The Gang Has a Mid-Life Crisis
#3It really does feel like most tech leaders are having an internal struggle that they externalize and make all of our problems. Have you seen Musks Twitter timeline? That guy is so chronically online and desperate to be liked that it's just sad. How can you be the richest man in the world and yet so deeply pathetic? Same with Zuck's attempt at being "cool" now and don't even get me started on Benioff's whole weird "Al…
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Re: The Gang Has a Mid-Life Crisis
#4Nice take. Don't let the DEI lead-in sway you from reading this observation about tech moguls trying to reclaim their glory days.
Re: The Gang Has a Mid-Life Crisis
#5Nice take. Don't let the DEI lead-in sway you from reading this observation about tech moguls trying to reclaim their glory days.
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Re: The Gang Has a Mid-Life Crisis
#6It really does feel like most tech leaders are having an internal struggle that they externalize and make all of our problems. Have you seen Musks Twitter timeline? That guy is so chronically online and desperate to be liked that it's just sad. How can you be the richest man in the world and yet so deeply pathetic? Same with Zuck's attempt at being "cool" now and don't even get me started on Benioff's whole weird "Al…
Insecurity is often (always?) the driver of achievement. Some sort of deep-seated pathology is basically required to build the empires they have.
Re: The Gang Has a Mid-Life Crisis
#7Nice take. Don't let the DEI lead-in sway you from reading this observation about tech moguls trying to reclaim their glory days.
Eh, the rest of us who are really old are reminiscing the Apple ][ or the PDP-11 or the IBM 360 in the case of a former coworker who is pushing 70.
Funny I am known for being a steady, slow and dependable hand in real life but I team up with youngsters to win hackathons, I drive them nuts with my insistence on minimal and viable but my ability to go up on stage and demo something broken and make it look great carries the weekend -- good 'old fashion startup veteran skills.
Re: The Gang Has a Mid-Life Crisis
#8Yup that's right. The best frontier for b2c now is, what, say shipping an b/w e-ink phone in America so we can be less addicted? What's gone is gone.
There is more to do b2b, a lot more, but it is far less culturally relevant. It probably dovetails with people who aren't professional generalist programmers doing more programming as part of their job. That's a somewhat fractured conversation almost by definition.
I think with the LLM bubble bursts this will settle in better.
Re: The Gang Has a Mid-Life Crisis
#9It really does feel like most tech leaders are having an internal struggle that they externalize and make all of our problems. Have you seen Musks Twitter timeline? That guy is so chronically online and desperate to be liked that it's just sad. How can you be the richest man in the world and yet so deeply pathetic? Same with Zuck's attempt at being "cool" now and don't even get me started on Benioff's whole weird "Al…
My theory is that it's the absurd wealth in the first place that makes these people completely unhinged.
Imagine you are in a situation where nobody you interact with will ever tell you something you don't want to hear. Everyone tries their best to only appease you and tell you that you are the best most brightest person. These people also all depend on your money for their own aspirations (that mysteriously never pan out).
It's basically the same thing that happens to dictators. They become unhinged. Their craziest ideas receive no pushback so they go ahead and implement every whim.
What they all need are good real friends, yet that's the one thing that's impossible for them to gain if they didn't already have it before they became rich.
And they are likely even aware of this dynamic which is why they view everyone in the world as being just in it for the money. So why not do everything in your power to horde more since that's what everyone else you interact with is doing?
Re: The Gang Has a Mid-Life Crisis
#10It really does feel like most tech leaders are having an internal struggle that they externalize and make all of our problems. Have you seen Musks Twitter timeline? That guy is so chronically online and desperate to be liked that it's just sad. How can you be the richest man in the world and yet so deeply pathetic? Same with Zuck's attempt at being "cool" now and don't even get me started on Benioff's whole weird "Al…
Insecurity is often (always?) the driver of achievement. Some sort of deep-seated pathology is basically required to build the empires they have.
I'm not sure that's true, but even if it is, it is a sort of bipolar mix insecurity with hope and excitement.
The mid-life crisis insecurity doesn't have the hope and the rush in the same way. It has a lot more dread and angst.