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I quit the tech industry (2015)

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Re: I quit the tech industry (2015)

#261

Post by pc86 »

yata69420 wrote: post #230
awillen wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That last part is definitely overdramatic, but I do think that you're looking at the math of work in a way that I (and presumably the poster to which you're responding) don't agree with. The thing is, your 30-35 hours at a cushy office job isn't just 30-35 hours of fungible time - it's a commitment to a lifestyle that revolves around office work. A lot of folks talk like a person who has a job has the same amount of…

This is exactly it (and ok, perhaps "life of bondage" is a bit over-dramatic). I really value being able to sleep until I am rested and wake up without an alarm. I also want to be able to act on things when spontaneity strikes. Whether that's doing a marathon coding session to solve a problem, staying out late with a new group of friends, or deciding I'd like to go travel somewhere today. Also freeing up the area of…

> The anxiety and depression that come from knowing I have to sleep because I have to wake up to an alarm tomorrow so that I can solve some arbitrary problem for my employer is pretty much killing me.

I mean, having crippling anxiety and depression because you have to wake up at a certain time definitely isn't normal, by any means.

Re: I quit the tech industry (2015)

#263

Post by 8bitsrule »

charlie0 wrote: post #254

I'm shocked at how much negativity there is towards people quitting early just because they can. I sense a lot of this comes from the idea that a well paying job is embedded so deeply in American culture as a status symbol that people who choose to leave willingly must somehow be either stupid or have something else wrong with them. I'm very glad to work in an industry where people can trade 5-10 years of their lives…

There are different kinds of education. For example, vocational schools and liberal arts schools. In one we learn to specialize. In the other, we learn how to generalize. While there are advantages and disadvantages to each, I don't buy the argument that only specialists are worthwhile people. (Orson Welles didn't specialize, but had a lot to share.)

For example, many schools have programs which cater to technical people. Most of them also require such students to study unrelated electives. I chafed at that at first ("but I know what I want to know"); later on in life I greatly appreciated it. I didn't know enough to know what I wanted to know.

Life can be more than doing what's expected or trendy ... as most of history shows us. A lot more. I enjoyed reading about someone making that leap. It has its perils, yes. But. A couple of quotes from Joe Campbell (learned about him in one of those non-tech courses):

"If the path before you is clear, you're probably on someone else's."

" People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances with our own innermost being and reality."

Re: I quit the tech industry (2015)

#264

Post by lwhi »

nonrandomstring wrote: post #37

We talk about externalities. A chemical company pours toxins into a river, an automaker knows its products kill X people per year. These are tangible, understandable. But we don't yet think of the effects on the workforce as social externalities. Industrial safety has made the workplace a much safer space physically, but not mentally. The reality is, a great many jobs make us sick. Depression, anxiety, heightened agg…

How does society end up burdened with the cost, when education isn't free?

Re: I quit the tech industry (2015)

#265

Post by blep_ »

RankingMember wrote: post #172
foxes wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I retract everything, indeed they seem extremely sus.

that looks a hell of a lot more than "sus". JFC

In the interest of determining the correct level of sus, here's her response: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ByPcspwQv4StD-VW-E6HDRj6...

Re: I quit the tech industry (2015)

#266

Post by tangjurine »

thisNeeds2BeSad wrote: post #24
billllll wrote: post #14

I sympathize and did the same thing earlier this year: I quit my job to try and strike out on my own. For most tech companies, they sell you on this "mission" and tell you how valuable your work is. Then, you realize all you do is grease the wheels of bureaucracy. Any serious attempts of asking the question "how would anything be different if I didn't do my work" only leads to depressing answers. I've found the resul…

Its particularly bitter in the big ones. You develop something cool, they patent it and then put the patent "right on the office fridge, that way we get to see it every day" and there the innovation hangs and suffers and you realize not only did you work in vain, you made the life for true entrepaneurs harder for a long time and blocked innovation for years to come. Then you get promoted and oversee the same procedur…

Is this really what happens?

Re: I quit the tech industry (2015)

#267

Post by indrora »

oldandboring wrote: post #103
napolux wrote: post #15

“Rich kid cash stocks and stops working in tech to do whatever he likes” Come on.

Yeah it really snowballs at the end too, when he talks about opening a Patreon ("Yelp thought what I did was worth some cash, so maybe other people will too). Could you imagine a construction worker quitting her job and opening a Patreon, thinking it's realistic that people give her free money because she used to be productive on a job site? That all being said, the first part of the post is relatable. Tech jobs real…

Oddly, I do just that. One of the youtubers that I pay money to was a VP of information security at a major company doing live shows. He produces good content so I'm willing to to fund that.

Re: I quit the tech industry (2015)

#268

Post by thrwyoilarticle »

towaway15463 wrote: post #65
nonrandomstring wrote: post #37

We talk about externalities. A chemical company pours toxins into a river, an automaker knows its products kill X people per year. These are tangible, understandable. But we don't yet think of the effects on the workforce as social externalities. Industrial safety has made the workplace a much safer space physically, but not mentally. The reality is, a great many jobs make us sick. Depression, anxiety, heightened agg…

It’s interesting that you don’t consider landscaping, juice bars, and wind surfing schools as beneficial to the economy. Could it be that these highly educated and intelligent people you are talking about see things differently? Perhaps after 5 years in tech they realize that none of the companies they’ve worked for are actually providing any benefit to society and are perhaps even a net negative. That realization is…

Our jobs are more productive in economic terms and that's the reason we can get paid more. You have a good points about net negatives but objectively our jobs pay more tax & there are plenty of companies where our skills can be applied for good.

Re: I quit the tech industry (2015)

#269

Post by throwaway894345 »

FooBarBizBazz wrote: post #256
throwaway894345 wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We value individuality and selfishness. In fact, we actually deify these qualities... (especially US society) I don't think it's "US society", as much as it is urban and suburban society which has become dominant over the last few decades. Traditionally in the US, people were a lot more communal--neighbors and families would share farm equipment, help each other through busy seasons, watch each other's farm while t…

The other half of this picture is that the old farming communities have died, and the whole of the American Midwest is now a giant machine for the industrial production of food, inhabited by just a few people, who maintain the giant sprinklers and combines that stride across the depopulated landscape.

This isn’t true where i hail from (also, which parts of the midwest rely on sprinklers? I’ve only seen them in the west and southern plains. Maybe Kansas and the western Dakotas?

Re: I quit the tech industry (2015)

#270

Post by wollsmoth »

lostcolony wrote: post #235
wollsmoth wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>calling out the pronouns she uses to identify herself seems like a perfectly natural response to correct someone using the wrong pronouns I feel like this pronouns thing started up in just the past few years. To me it seems more natural to say someone is a man/woman. If someone doesn't fit into one of those boxes then I think it makes sense to clarify the preferred pronouns.

>> If someone doesn't fit into one of those boxes That's kind of the point of using them though. The goal is to -stop- saying "you either fit into this gender binary, or you are 'other'". It's kinda like normalizing the use of "partner" instead of "husband/wife" even for the straight married people; it helps normalize relationships that fall outside of monogamous, state recognized marriage, and doesn't force gender d…

Yeah I think I understand the push towards that. I'm saying it's not really a "normal" thing. I live in a pretty liberal area and have yet to hear someone announce their pronouns. I sometimes see it listed in someone's slack or twitter bio or something though. Generally we're just running on context clues and stuff.
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