Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

gist.github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

261–270 of 754 posts

Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

#261

Post by highlysyntropic »

throwaway839246 wrote: post #6
throwaway123874 wrote: post #5

I think the only answer here is to stop clinging onto this 'life' you have. The optimism you're seeking comes from looking forward to today, right now. Right here, right now. Everything is the present moment. If you do not find yourself in the present moment - this could be due to the weight of money, weight of the future, weight of obligations - then abandon it all. You don't need anything. Just reclaim the time tha…

I did throw everything away. I walked away from ~$10M, so this isn't the problem. To live in the present moment one has to unsee the cant. That's the difficult part. How to keep the mind from focusing on all the bullshit that it can't unsee. The burnout, the disillusionment, the politics, the faded friendships. That's what's hard.

It's hard. but also easy. letting go. like dropping a cup from your hand.. it falls. but it's hard. so hard. the easiest thing in the world. to let go. is also really hard.

so you have to work at it. retrain you brain.

they have a system for this. it's called meditation.

and i need to do it more.

it's all about, whenever thoughts and feeling come up, bring your awareness back to the present moment. maybe by focusing on your breath, on the empty space around you, on a point. you will fail. again and again. mind will drift. keep bringing it back gently. that's all meditation is. sit there in stillness and bring your heart and mind to be in the present.

eventually, this happens even when you're not in sitting there meditating. so the past hold less sway, you walk away from it. remember, those thoughts and feeling, they are yours, but they are not you. you are something else.

your are what watches. so, just observe. but to do this, is so hard.

I also discovered, even meditation is not a cure. if there is karma you need to address, unfinished business, conversations which need to be had, something incomplete, you need to work that out and take some action. meditation is good for giving you super powers, and letting go of (parts of) things that are already complete, but which for whatever reason, your brain and limbic system has overconsolidated.

Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

#262

Post by cbmcgee »

throwaway839246 wrote: post #251
cbmcgee wrote: post #248

Have you thought about looking for a job with a tech related non-profit? I joined one a few years ago after spending my entire career in the traditional for-profit tech space and I have been amazed at the difference between the two worlds. Most of the negative aspects of the VC driven tech world that you talk about don't really exist in the non-profit space. It's not all sunshine and roses, but might be a great way f…

Would you mind saying which nonprofit you joined? (or maybe throw out a couple of names of other non-profits, just as examples of what's possible)

I have interacted with some of the orgs in the list below. I'm fairly certain that they are all 501.3c orgs but hopefully this will give you an idea. I've tried to think of orgs that are mainly tech focused. Hope this helps.

Volunteer Match Give Lively UPchieve WeVote Learning Equality

Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

#263

Post by vmception »

rgbrenner wrote: post #210
bcrosby95 wrote: post #53

> I lost many friends. They weren't ever your friends. People at work rarely transcend beyond co-workers and into actual friendship. If all you do together is work and around-work activities, they probably aren't your friends. You're effectively people locked in a cage together that happen to get along. If you get together on days you don't work together then they might actually be your friend. If they've met your no…

It's very common for the founders and early employees to be friends prior to the startup. He may have very well lost friends. He didn't elaborate, so we really don't know.

My former co-founder thinks we are friends, he is a talentless hack that speaks business world bullshit and ideas that don't make any sense because they don't.

I just needed the +1 to get funded. It worked.

He is your typical idea guy: no skills, no capital, no ability to execute.

I think we have good synergy for his ability to get behind a vision and repeat it to other people the same-enough way.

Reading this thread makes me wonder if he would be posting on here about the "friends" he lost.

Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

#264

Post by ddevault »

throwaway839246 wrote: post #114
ddevault wrote: post #84

There's a lot of good advice and insights in this thread. You have good reason for feeling this way, and all of the paths people have suggested - ways to move on and stay in tech; how to leave tech entirely; how to make it a hobby instead of a job; or some other middle ground - are valid ways to address this problem. But, I may suggest an additional option: do something about it. Build a business that eschews VC cult…

Thank you, I will consider it. I wonder what subset of these problems can be solved, and what subset is a fixed property of the human experience. I don't know yet. This is a massive problem, and a business is likely not the right vehicle to solve it. Political office might be, but everyone (myself included) seems disillusioned with that too. I'll think about it.

There are no fixed properties of the human experience. This mortal coil is whatever we make of it.

Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

#265

Post by highlysyntropic »

fxtentacle wrote: post #157
throwaway839246 wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd add open office plans to this. It's awful. You never quite get to focus, you don't build the rapport with your team, you don't get to customize your physical environment. Development really became a white collar version of the assembly line.

It's kind of weird by now. They will happily offer you $200k in annual salary, but an office with a window where you could keep a potted plant is out of the question.

exactly, what the hell is that about?

is it a form of abuse like trying to keep everyone under control? is it a form of psychological conditioning to remind you that you just a resource whose top priority is to be interrupted at any time so knowing that you don't really have any personal space sovereignty or privacy to your own thoughts or creativity but that you must answer and create only for the collective?

I don't feel I have a clear picture on what it's about any insights?

Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

#268

Post by Thorentis »

Balgair wrote: post #254
Thorentis wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What happened in 2012/13 that ended this?

It's a complex issue and if you ask 10 people, you'll get 23 answers. One of my answers: the greater geopolitical community woke up to the power of Web 2.0 with Tahrir Square and the questions that social media technology poses to us all. Largely, Tahrir Square was the high water mark of Silicon Valley and the old promises of free information exchange and the hippie ethos that spawned it all. The reaction by the geop…

This is the first I've heard of this. Got any articles about this or want to give a longer explanation?

Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

#269

Post by asdkjh345fd »

I spent 17 years going through that. I can't say I recovered my optimism, but I stopped being cynical and am now realistic (which people tend to think is pessimistic), but without it being negative. Get off the drugs, move into the country and eat a lot of peaches. Technology will never be enjoyable again, and that's a good thing. Grow your own food, make your own tools, build your own furniture. Use your intelligence to make your life better instead of helping greedy people try to shove more ads in front of people.

Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

#270

Post by KKKKkkkk1 »

Balgair wrote: post #134
TallGuyShort wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was shocked at the beginning of the lockdown in Silicon Valley how many colleagues immediately went to a dark place because they had virtually no support structure, social interaction, or even sense of identity outside of their in-person workplace associations. Granted, a lot of in-person socialization out of the office is also off-the-table, but that's not the problem I heard from people. It's not healthy to live…

It's understandable. Look at pre 2012 SV. All the ping-pong tables, all the beanbag chairs, the free beer, the free laundry, the sleep-pods, the cafeterias, etc. 'Cynical' people thought that these accruements were meant to keep you there and working all the time. People got rid of their apartments, set up Winnebagos in the parking lot. Intents do matter, but still, if you were that kind of person, the one that thoug…

When I visited the Google office in Mountain View, I noticed the streets around it were packed with parked RVs. Do those RVs belong to homeless employees?
Post reply on HN