Ask HN: Is anyone else just done with the industry? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Is anyone else just done with the industry?

#121

Post by tptacek » Fri, Jun 27, 2025, 5:33 PM UTC

_virtu wrote: post #115

tptacek wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess another bit of advice is to do whatever you need to do to avoid ending up talking like this.

I mean the grandparent poster isn’t wrong. This whole system is stacked against us. It’s difficult to keep moving knowing that we don’t have the ability to opt out of the way our whole society works. This is a very broad discussion that I know has many different facets to it, but the grandparent poster seems to be calling out what a lot of people believe is true.

I think when you start talking like this, you're winding yourself up, which is just not a good way to confront tough decisions.

Re: Ask HN: Is anyone else just done with the industry?

#122

Post by owebmaster » Fri, Jun 27, 2025, 5:36 PM UTC

csomar wrote: post #85

MongooseStudios wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel that right in my soul. The other side of the coin is they are currently destroying the talent pipeline by keeping smart motivated people out of roles where they could learn fast and grow. The myopic strategy(or lack thereof) is astonishing to me.

You are delusional. I remember when I was starting (over 10 years ago), I worked with a guy who had a PhD in physics. We were doing WordPress stuff and I was getting paid higher than him (to add insult to injury I was based in a cheap third-world country and he was UK based). Since I've interacted with him a bit, I got to discover that he was very smart, mathematically inclined and did actually write correct English.…

I would guess that of every 10 dollars spent in tech nowadays, 9 go to big tech, really Google, Meta, Apple, Microsoft. We won't have another tech boom anytime soon, unless they start buying companies like crazy again

Re: Ask HN: Is anyone else just done with the industry?

#123

Post by AnimalMuppet » Fri, Jun 27, 2025, 5:43 PM UTC

_virtu wrote: post #115

tptacek wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess another bit of advice is to do whatever you need to do to avoid ending up talking like this.

I mean the grandparent poster isn’t wrong. This whole system is stacked against us. It’s difficult to keep moving knowing that we don’t have the ability to opt out of the way our whole society works. This is a very broad discussion that I know has many different facets to it, but the grandparent poster seems to be calling out what a lot of people believe is true.

> It’s difficult to keep moving knowing that we don’t have the ability to opt out of the way our whole society works.

Pretty much nobody ever did, in any society, with few exceptions. "Going to America" was one exception, and then "going west". But for most people, for most of civilization, that has never been an option.

And, in fact, the whole system is stacked against us less than it has been for most of the history of civilization. You aren't a serf. You aren't a slave. You aren't an indentured servant, or bound to a ruler or leader in any way.

But I think what many people are feeling is the first derivative. There was a time when the system worked better for people (at least for white males) - say the 1950s or 1960s. People can feel the first derivative being negative. They feel the loss of something. I think that's behind the surge of this sentiment.

Re: Ask HN: Is anyone else just done with the industry?

#124

Post by AnimalMuppet » Fri, Jun 27, 2025, 5:54 PM UTC

justrudd wrote: post #29

I assume by industry you mean software development. And I’m not tired of that. Where else can you be integrally involved in different businesses? Communications, medical, education, e-commerce for anything/everything. We get to play in a lot of different playgrounds and potentially have a huge impact. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of that. I am tired of the interview process. Here’s a take home assignment that yo…

I just say no to take home assignments. Just no.

You can think of it in terms of time commitments. I could have applied to 30 places. I don't have four hours or 16 hours or whatever, times 30 different places. Ain't nobody got time for that.

Or you can think of it in terms of, they can waste hours of my time at the price of maybe 5 minutes of their own. This leaves them less incentive to be efficient.

Net result: They're not respecting my time. They're probably not going to respect me in other ways. So, no. Just no. I'll look somewhere else.

Re: Ask HN: Is anyone else just done with the industry?

#125

Post by AnimalMuppet » Fri, Jun 27, 2025, 6:04 PM UTC

MongooseStudios wrote: post #60

Animats wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's a typical job in that category. Boring but practical Chicago Dryer.[1] Industrial Controls Engineer Chicago Dryer Chicago, IL $80,000 to $110,000 Yearly Vision, Medical, Dental, Paid Time Off, Life Insurance, Retirement Full-Time 5+ years of experience in controls & software engineering High-level knowledge of one or more programming languages (C, Pascal(structured-text)) Familiarity with Windows, Linux & Real…

How strict is something like that on the demands for CAD and Electrical Design stuff? Because I've never done any of that. I'd be happy to learn it, but that doesn't seem to matter anymore.

Wisdom in the past was, if you have half of it, apply, because it's always a wish list. I don't know if that still applies, though,

Re: Ask HN: Is anyone else just done with the industry?

#126

Post by aristofun » Fri, Jun 27, 2025, 6:05 PM UTC

spacemadness wrote: post #120

aristofun wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The only people who gain from calling engineers lazy and privileged are executives also commies and alternatively-minded people

Who says commies these days in all seriousness? Alternatively minded people sounds like something out of a Facebook boomer fever dream.

why so serious? :)

Re: Ask HN: Is anyone else just done with the industry?

#127

Post by burgerguyg » Fri, Jun 27, 2025, 6:10 PM UTC

ativzzz wrote: post #88

tptacek wrote: post #3

Hi! I've been doing this since 1994 (I started in the industry instead of going to college). I feel this way approximately once every 7-8 years. What I think I've learned is that I make stupid decisions reacting to those feelings.

> I make stupid decisions reacting to those feelings. Yea it seems like the right thing to do is to step away and take a sabbatical to cool down, and then remember that we like money, and that it's just part of the game to get paid.

What do you mean "we?"

I don't "like" a hammer, but I appreciate what I can do with it.

I think of money as more like a love/hate/appreciate relationship. I hate what I have to do to obtain money, but I love living indoors, so I appreciate the benefits having money provides.

Re: Ask HN: Is anyone else just done with the industry?

#128

Post by archagon » Fri, Jun 27, 2025, 6:24 PM UTC

The eager fascism permeating the industry, the tidal wave of AI propaganda pushing people into tepid custodial work, and the active hostility of executives towards their workers disgusts me and probably means that I won't be touching Silicon Valley tech companies anymore. If anything, I will aim to work against their interests whenever I can.

I still love programming and making things. Fortunately, I have the means to go off and do my own stuff for the foreseeable future.

Re: Ask HN: Is anyone else just done with the industry?

#129

Post by archagon » Fri, Jun 27, 2025, 6:32 PM UTC

MongooseStudios wrote: post #101

rusticrover wrote: post #90

The core issue here isn't just market conditions or bad hiring practices. It's that tech _workers_ have spent decades thinking they were somehow different from other _workers_, that they were 'partners' with capital rather than the labor behind it. You're experiencing what people in every other industry have dealt with for generations: being treated as a disposable cost center when it's convenient for ownership. The…

I've been in a union before. The benefits were bad, the pay was bad, after negotiations they were still bad. The union said "we tried." So I have trouble seeing them as the panacea that is marketed.

Are you trying to extrapolate from a single data point? Yes, some unions are bad. Obviously. In no way does this invalidate the benefits of unions in general, especially when compared to the tyranny of unrestrained corporatism.

Re: Ask HN: Is anyone else just done with the industry?

#130

Post by AlecSchueler » Fri, Jun 27, 2025, 6:33 PM UTC

octo888 wrote: post #113

Do you have any friends who work minimum wage jobs? If not, find some and talk to them. I find it's EXCELLENT motivation to stay in this industry no matter how crap it seems. I absolutely resonate with how you feel and what you have written though.

I moved from software to a minimum wage job. The jobs themselves were similarly enjoyable but software had better management and people treated me better when finding out what I did, while the minimum wage job gave me more exercise and a better connection with customers.