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Personal Memoirs of a Silicon Valley Tech Whore: Part 1

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Re: Personal Memoirs of a Silicon Valley Tech Whore: Part 1

#13

Post by ardy42 »

> Dave Chappelle has a bit in which he talks about how this one pimp manages to "get extra mileage" from one of his (the pimps) whores who is on the brink of quitting, of breaking down. The horrible story, expertly delivered by one the greatest stand-up comedians and storytellers to ever live, is an allusion to what happened to Mr. Chappelle in Hollywood - an explanation on why he left and went to fucking Africa of all places, choosing to renounce millions of dollars, his cut from a show he created. The story is from a book written by an actual pimp:

> This story resonated with me, deeply....

So, what's the bit or the story that he's referring to here?

Re: Personal Memoirs of a Silicon Valley Tech Whore: Part 1

#14

Post by solarmist »

I’ve worked in places like this (Machine Zone straight out of Freemium isn’t free https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freemium_Isn%27t_Free) and other much better places. Ironically the most corporate and dull place I worked was owned by Penthouse (not soul sucking, but nothing to write home about either. Think Johnathan Coulton’s Code Monkey song). And the best company I’ve worked for seems like the definition of boring corporation, LinkedIn.

It’s all what you make of it, but when the company itself is treating you like a whore then it just makes every grievance that much worse.

Re: Personal Memoirs of a Silicon Valley Tech Whore: Part 1

#15

Post by partingshots »

You might find that your attitude is the problem, and not the industry itself. If you’re so cynical as to compare writing code for a living to human trafficking and sex work, which are very real problems that you have carelessly and insensitively used as a metaphor, maybe you should find a new gig.

And this isn’t about political correctness, either. I don’t care about them. But if you were going to use this metaphor and this style, you better do it well, and you failed. This post isn’t edgy or interesting or novel.

Re: Personal Memoirs of a Silicon Valley Tech Whore: Part 1

#17

Post by fukmbas »

darth_avocado wrote: post #9

I think what a lot of engineers that come fresh out of college need to understand one thing: Not every day in your career is going to be constantly fulfilling. Sure there's gonna be days, weeks or even months worth of really cool stuff you'd work on, but majority of your career is going to be spent on mindless, completely soul sucking work while also dealing with other aspects of working with other human beings. Let'…

Thanks to all of the MBAs flooding tech you will be spending most of your time on mindless administrative work and writing OKRs every 2 weeks. Focusing so much on HOW we work rather than WHAT we're working on. Oh yeah and everyone on the Product side are going to make 2x more than you can have plenty of career paths. Sorry about your luck

Re: Personal Memoirs of a Silicon Valley Tech Whore: Part 1

#18

Post by phendrenad2 »

partingshots wrote: post #15

You might find that your attitude is the problem, and not the industry itself. If you’re so cynical as to compare writing code for a living to human trafficking and sex work, which are very real problems that you have carelessly and insensitively used as a metaphor, maybe you should find a new gig. And this isn’t about political correctness, either. I don’t care about them. But if you were going to use this metaphor…

It's not really new; Musicians and artists who make an income from their work often compare it to prostitution. You're not selling your body, so much as your soul. Personally I find the comparison melodramatic, but I understand the sentiment.

Re: Personal Memoirs of a Silicon Valley Tech Whore: Part 1

#19

Post by dleslie »

darth_avocado wrote: post #9

I think what a lot of engineers that come fresh out of college need to understand one thing: Not every day in your career is going to be constantly fulfilling. Sure there's gonna be days, weeks or even months worth of really cool stuff you'd work on, but majority of your career is going to be spent on mindless, completely soul sucking work while also dealing with other aspects of working with other human beings. Let'…

It can be _mostly_ fulfilling if you find a good team and a compelling project. Too often work is a chore due to the emotional labour necessary to work with toxic people on a dreary project.
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