21–30 of 178 posts
The author doesn't appear to have any industry experience whatsoever, which might have contributed to the post being a series of baseless assertions, followed by a non sequitur.
Big tech g̶e̶n̶e̶r̶o̶u̶s̶l̶y̶ lavishly supported programmers for a whole generation. This is something to be happy about.
Don't be naive, there was neither generosity nor support, it was always about business: talent was scarce and plenty of competition for it existed. Thus compensation kept going up. The "generous" overlords didn't think twice about cutting tens of thousands of developers to please wall street, even if financially there wasn't the smallest need for it.
I am not using the word generous in the unselfish sense, but the large, abundant sense. Apologies for any confusion.
It could also be a 4X increase in grads for Computer and Information Sciences degrees since the 90s.
Source: https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/Search?query=computer%20science&qu...
This is cyclical to a certain extent. The same thing happened during Dot Bomb, the Great Recession, and even 2018-20. Paul G's early blogposts on "ramen profitability" and entrepreneurship hold credence in these kinds of times, as these rightsizing moments do open opportunities to build challengers. Behemoths like FB, PANW, SNOW, and SFDC were founded during the aftermath of the dot bomb and behemoths like Coinbase,…
> Coinbase, Uber, DoorDash, and Stripe during the Great Recession. Now that the barrier to building products and companies is much lower than it has been for years, we will see the next generations of rocket ships. Oh great! I can’t wait for the next generation of unnecessary luxury apps that just provide another lazier way to be a good consoomer. All while the few necessities that matter, housing, food, etc. become…
> All while the few necessities that matter, housing, food, etc. become increasingly more expensive and less accessible.
What does this have to do with Coinbase, Uber, DoorDash, and Stripe?
It also caused the "Golden Age of Programming". It's only been a golden age because of high salaries for relatively low effort. So if their needs change, obviously the industry changes. This article has nothing to say really.
>It's only been a golden age because of high salaries for relatively low effort. Money is how you define a Golden Age of Programming? I consider the late 1990s and early 2000s more of a Golden Age, and my reasons for it have nothing to do with making money. The time was of Golden Age because that's when programming became more accessible to the masses. Yes it wasn't without its fault, namely with regards to cyber sec…
This industry is cyclical -- I mean, most industries outside of the absolute core like healthcare are cyclical -- and there are booms and busts. Everyone hires when everyone else is hiring. Every holds steady when everyone else is holding steady.
But by far the hugest influence right now is AI, and it is having a calamitous impact on everything. There is this broad industry feeling right now that such massive shifts are not only coming, they're already underway, that there is a wait and see sense all over the place.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Coinbase, Uber, DoorDash, and Stripe during the Great Recession. Now that the barrier to building products and companies is much lower than it has been for years, we will see the next generations of rocket ships. Oh great! I can’t wait for the next generation of unnecessary luxury apps that just provide another lazier way to be a good consoomer. All while the few necessities that matter, housing, food, etc. become…
Okay, I'll bite. > All while the few necessities that matter, housing, food, etc. become increasingly more expensive and less accessible. What does this have to do with Coinbase, Uber, DoorDash, and Stripe?
The author doesn't appear to have any industry experience whatsoever, which might have contributed to the post being a series of baseless assertions, followed by a non sequitur.
The author seems to have some experience, but they are early career AND in Canada (which is a hard market to land a well paying tech job even at the best of times). Feeling despondent when facing such a double whammy seems unsurprising.