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What happens if an entire class of workers loses faith in their careers

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Re: What happens if an entire class of workers loses faith in their careers

#231

Post by cheschire »

dec0dedab0de wrote: post #167
xlii wrote: post #85

Long long time ago people in tech were in tech because of the tech. Then, at some point, being in tech became a gilded profession and everyone: salesmen, artists, clerks etc. joined in. Not because they wanted to be in tech. They wanted gold. For years it was working, but right now things shifted. You can no longer just do the thing you learned for a job and continue doing so, because landscape shifted. So they're mi…

I have been in tech for the tech for over 20 years now, heck over 30 years as a hobbyist. I have lost almost all interest in it these days. It feels increasingly meaningless, and actively harmful. I know it is my own fault for neglecting my health and relationships, but I can't help but feel this career makes the most important things more difficult.

Were you chasing the feeling of successfully solving a problem? Have you replaced problem solving with LLM chats?

Maybe instead of engineering, you’ve been subtly shifted into project management and hate that career.

But it’s tough to engineer much these days. Instead I find I’m PM’ing the bots more than solving problems.

Re: What happens if an entire class of workers loses faith in their careers

#232

Post by rindalir »

I want to address something mentioned in the article about people wishing for for grounded occupations. I have a sheep farm and I could not keep it running without my tech salary. So I kinda view these as false escapes. Unless forced to or of independent means, who is going to throw themselves into the bottom fork of the “K-shaped” economy.

Re: What happens if an entire class of workers loses faith in their careers

#233

Post by 12998175 »

Animats wrote: post #224

Addressing the question in the title, "What happens if an entire class of workers loses faith in their careers", look at what happened to printers. That was a good skilled trade for centuries. Then it just went away. Phototypesetting took the high volume end. Desktop publishing took the low end. Computer-controlled presses took press operators. And then the newspaper business died. I've heard homeless former printers…

[dead]

Re: What happens if an entire class of workers loses faith in their careers

#234

Post by elliottkember »

marginalia_nu wrote: post #197
pseudalopex wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> All the news is just outrage porn and non-stop predictions of impending doom. No. And this shallow dismissal builds the mood you complained about.

As an experiment, completely stop consuming news and social media for a few weeks. People have lived their entire lives without these information streams, you'll survive unplugging a bit. Now I can't tell you what you will experience if you go through with this, but I can promise it's very enlightening.

Look at the replies. You’re telling junkies to stop using. It won’t work. This is addiction.

Re: What happens if an entire class of workers loses faith in their careers

#235

Post by throwaway_7274 »

dec0dedab0de wrote: post #163

This dropped off the front page in the time I read it, I assume because of the controversial gate that favors upvotes to comments (which I am making worse by replying to others). It is a shame, because this really resonated with me. I've been working in tech for over 20 years now in various roles, and this is the least I have cared about it. I used to want to get better, and was constantly excited about learning new…

It’s funny, people are so different! I’d always taken it as an axiomatic Truth of the world that money doesn’t buy happiness. When I finally caved and took a high-paying job, I was shocked (shocked I tell you!) to find that it made my life a lot easier. So much breathing room :)

This isn’t a disagreement or a hook into some discourse or anything. I don’t have a point. Just thoughts

Re: What happens if an entire class of workers loses faith in their careers

#236

Post by lazyasciiart »

marginalia_nu wrote: post #197
pseudalopex wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> All the news is just outrage porn and non-stop predictions of impending doom. No. And this shallow dismissal builds the mood you complained about.

As an experiment, completely stop consuming news and social media for a few weeks. People have lived their entire lives without these information streams, you'll survive unplugging a bit. Now I can't tell you what you will experience if you go through with this, but I can promise it's very enlightening.

My offline time is spent volunteering with asylum seekers. As an experiment, try actually caring about the people experiencing what you think of as meaningless online negativity.

Re: What happens if an entire class of workers loses faith in their careers

#237

Post by lazyasciiart »

ianbutler wrote: post #229
jknoepfler wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No thank you. I had ICE flood the streets where I live with poorly trained thugs with assault rifles recruited from the ranks of neonazis illegally assaulting, detaining and abusing citizens of my country because they had brown skin. They shot dead two citizens (Renee Good and Alex Pretti) doing what I was also doing - relentlessly recording and documenting their behavior and addition to protesting. I don't think you…

> Reality sucks and sometimes you have to do something about it or else you're the problem. But ARE you doing anything about it? Because unless you're actually taking action it's basically just self flagellation to the benefit of no one. Like if you have some measure of power (community action, organized resistance, political lobbying) and are taking action that's great, reading articles that make you sad and angry a…

Try literally responding to the comment you are dismissing

> what I was also doing - relentlessly recording and documenting their behavior and addition to protesting.

Re: What happens if an entire class of workers loses faith in their careers

#238

Post by 7230883707 »

Der_Einzige wrote: post #108
elric wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is rude and annoying in general. But even in quiet cars it seems like many people just don't give a fuck and will simply jabber on obnoxiously without any care for anyone else. Would be nice if people could keep their noise levels down in general.

[flagged]

[flagged]

Re: What happens if an entire class of workers loses faith in their careers

#239

Post by lazyasciiart »

ianbutler wrote: post #225
autoexec wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure that ignoring all of the very real problems we have and the ways we're being harmed can make some people feel better, but burying your head in the sand doesn't make any of it actually go away. You can pretty safely ignore a lot of irrelevant rage bait, but by remaining ignorant to what's going on around you you also risk losing a lot of useful, actionable, information and being blindsided by things that coul…

What are you doing to fix the issues though? Has the knowledge of the issues increased your agency in a meaningful way such that you've taken actions to improve things or are you just enjoying living in a perpetually outraged state for the sake of it? If your martyrdom isn't doing anything to help fix the problem you're just hurting yourself and stopping yourself from potentially being in a space to ever actually do…

And what are you doing with the happy mental space you have carved out?

Re: What happens if an entire class of workers loses faith in their careers

#240

Post by Rendello »

Animats wrote: post #224

Addressing the question in the title, "What happens if an entire class of workers loses faith in their careers", look at what happened to printers. That was a good skilled trade for centuries. Then it just went away. Phototypesetting took the high volume end. Desktop publishing took the low end. Computer-controlled presses took press operators. And then the newspaper business died. I've heard homeless former printers…

Farewell, Etaoin Shrdlu documents the last day of hot type at The New York Times before the digital changeover. It's one of my favourite documentaries, everything feels so vivid and alive:

https://www.nytimes.com/video/insider/100000004687429/farewe...

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