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You are not your job

jry.io

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Re: You are not your job

#111

Post by jleyank »

musicale wrote: post #109
zinodaur wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole world is hurting pretty bad right now when it comes to tech jobs - America seems to be hurting the least. I'm not saying the tech job situation in America isn't bad - but the world dances to America's fiddle, and its frustrating hearing Americans complain about how hard their situation is while their boot is firmly planted on my neck

I have edited it to clarify that (in the US) applied to losing health insurance.

To be specific, it’s tied to good employment. Part-time and low-salary jobs don’t often (usually?) provide it. So trading a good tech jobs for “things to keep busy” loses the insurance. Unless you can afford cobra and that only lasts 18 months. At what tends to be 5x the price.

Re: You are not your job

#112

Post by bayarearefugee »

zinodaur wrote: post #108
musicale wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> in the US, you can get another one much more quickly than anywhere else in the world Depending on the economic conditions for the year, it can still take months: > To illustrate the recent trajectory: one analysis found that in January 2023 it took job seekers 268 days on average to land a job offer, whereas by August 2024 this had improved to 182 days (about 6 months) (How Long Does it Take to Find a Job in 2024?)…

The whole world is hurting pretty bad right now when it comes to tech jobs - America seems to be hurting the least. I'm not saying the tech job situation in America isn't bad - but the world dances to America's fiddle, and its frustrating hearing Americans complain about how hard their situation is while their boot is firmly planted on my neck

I completely understand where you are coming from, but try not to hate on American laborers because of this situation, that is no more helpful than Americans blaming immigrants for their job woes.

It is the wealthy capitalist class that has the boot planted on all of our necks.

I do recognize that the outcome is worse for some people than others, but keeping us fighting each other is how they continue to maintain power.

Re: You are not your job

#113

Post by [deleted] »

cermicelli wrote: post #95
block_dagger wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Within a few years I think UBI or UBS will be required for people to continue living, in which case basic needs (bills) won't be a concern. There's just no way for us to transition fast enough to avoid high unemployment as AI replaces large swaths of jobs. I do worry about the ~10 year transition it will take for societal governments to react.

Only way UBI works is if the govts increase taxes on all income or any income to almost 90%+... And then re-distribute to each person accordingly. That ain't happening, no govt will be willing to try that, and rich won't let that happen, they will become slightly rich from very rich. that just ain't happening.

[deleted]

Re: You are not your job

#114

Post by tombert »

zinodaur wrote: post #102
musicale wrote: post #99

> You are not your job. You're a person first. Your ability to connect, be present, and make people feel understood is what makes you irreplaceable to the people around you, which is the only market that counts. True, but losing your job is still a big deal. It often means that you lose your income, your health insurance (in the US at least), many (if not most) of your daily interactions with other people, and your s…

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Re: You are not your job

#115

Post by suzzer99 »

vrganj wrote: post #17
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #13

There’s an old aphorism: “Do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life.” I worked in tech, because I love tech . No other reason, really. I accepted a job, making maybe half of what I could make, elsewhere, because of the personal satisfaction I got from it, and the relationships I made, there. When I retired, I have continued to develop software, and am currently “leaning into” AI-assisted development.…

I have found that aphorism does not ring true for me. “Do what you love for work, and you'll stop loving it" seems more true to me. It always eventually turns into a chore once it is a thing you need to do.

I've been coding for 30 years. We recently built a silent auction app for the university I work for, and it was as rewarding for me as the first thing I ever programmed. Sometimes the job is a chore. But for me, the challenge of building something new never gets old. Teaching junior devs is also consistently rewarding.

Re: You are not your job

#116

Post by ricree »

david-gpu wrote: post #38

Agreed with the title and some of the broad sentiment, but two things stood out. > I can't delegate my capacity to sit with someone when they're confused or scared or just need to feel known Plenty of people rely on therapists and/or chat bots to listen to them. Not everybody feels comfortable burdening their friends and family with their problems. > We possess the means to care for everyone -- yet choose not to Ther…

>For example, the vast majority of people choose to retire once they reach the age where they are able to collect enough from their pension that they no longer need to work in order to get by

Part of the problem is that the current system doesn't provide a great way to taper off, at least not by default. I suspect there would be a lot more people who'd keep working if it was simple to get a comparable job at 30 hours per week 25 weeks out of the year. But for those who are traditionally employed instead of contracting, the choice is often between full time or nothing.

Re: You are not your job

#117

Post by tombert »

vrganj wrote: post #17
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #13

There’s an old aphorism: “Do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life.” I worked in tech, because I love tech . No other reason, really. I accepted a job, making maybe half of what I could make, elsewhere, because of the personal satisfaction I got from it, and the relationships I made, there. When I retired, I have continued to develop software, and am currently “leaning into” AI-assisted development.…

I have found that aphorism does not ring true for me. “Do what you love for work, and you'll stop loving it" seems more true to me. It always eventually turns into a chore once it is a thing you need to do.

I've been doing this full time for about fifteen years, which is a fairly long time (though admittedly not nearly as much as some others here).

I haven't really stopped loving writing and designing software. I still have fun writing code and coming up with clever optimization tricks. The thing that has become draining is the actual act of "having a job".

Obviously I'm grateful to have an income, and I like my coworkers, but the problem with most jobs is that the part I enjoy like ends up being a relatively small part of my day. When I worked for a BigCo there would be weeks at a time where at least half of my day is eaten by meetings and/or emails, and when you do get to work on something technical it's usually not something that's challenging or interesting. A lot of the work ends up being a bugfix or an incremental feature that really doesn't require a lot of thought.

Even startups aren't immune to this. With startups you have the advantage of not being nearly as siloed, but that comes with the double-edged sword of being stuck working on parts of the company or stack that you don't really care about. I deal with fewer meetings but I spend much more time fighting with Kubernetes YAML configurations which I find unbelievably draining, which I might have been able to avoid if I stayed at BigCo.

From 2016-2018, I worked at a MediumCo, where I was able to primarily focus on designing and writing distributed software. I was able to spend a good chunk of time figuring out how to optimize concurrent software, there weren't that many meetings, and I didn't get sick of it at all. I quit that job because I had a romanticized idea of what life at BigCo would be like; if I had the ability to see the future I would have stayed at MediumCo because I didn't like working at BigCo [1].

Anyway, my point is that given my experience, if you can actually work on the things you love, and not just a bunch of ancillary bullshit, I think it's possible you can continue to enjoy it forever. The problem is that most jobs simply aren't like that.

[1] Usual disclaimer; you might be able to dig through my history and figure out who BigCo and MediumCo are in this, and that's obviously fine, but I politely ask that you don't post the proper nouns here.

Re: You are not your job

#118

Post by TOMDM »

tdeck wrote: post #103
musicale wrote: post #99

> You are not your job. You're a person first. Your ability to connect, be present, and make people feel understood is what makes you irreplaceable to the people around you, which is the only market that counts. True, but losing your job is still a big deal. It often means that you lose your income, your health insurance (in the US at least), many (if not most) of your daily interactions with other people, and your s…

> Your ability to connect, be present, and make people feel understood is what makes you irreplaceable They say this to a group of people that often struggles with all of these but still have managed to make a living off of solving technical problems in the past. Don't worry, you can just fall back on your famously great people skills!

The irony in your comment is astounding.

Re: You are not your job

#119

Post by ehnto »

cedws wrote: post #26

>My technical skills are being disrupted by machines - that's fine I'll go do other things. [links to long bike trip] Ok that's cool and all but many of us have bills to pay. Bike trips don't pay the bills. Software people have been economically advantaged up until now that they can go and do stuff like that.

Software is just another job in many countries, making pretty normal middle class wages. Job loss will hit us the same as any other middle class worker.

Re: You are not your job

#120

Post by anonymars »

"The job will not save you, Jimmy. It won't make you whole, it won't fill [you] up."

https://youtu.be/NR1g30pQi4I?t=106s

Yes, it's true one needs to eat, have a roof over one's head, etc. Of course you can even like what you do, make friends at work. But never forget the nature of the relationship. It won't love you back.

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