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Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

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Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

#31

As long as the primary motivator remains profit, rather than increasing the averages person Quality of life, technology will be used to replace people to their detriment, rather than to their advantage. I'm sorry I have no good reason for you why you shouldn't be depressed. I'm afraid, depression might be the appropriate reaction to the state of things.

Even if profit is removed technology will still remain and shackle producers to production lines for the benefit of others by stripping away the autonomy of every individual though.

I don't think it's just "profit" that's the problem.

Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

#32

I'm having similar issues, and i think i found a way out: stop playing their game. Don't make enterprise software. Don't write unit tests. Don't accept pull requests. Simply write software for yourself and have fun doing it. Forget refactoring code into modules, just fucking code. Don't worry about deployment with k8s, just copy the Python script to your production folder and run it. Fuck all that shit about git bran…

I think this is a natural reaction to advice being over prescribed and totally agree that in your free time you should do whatever it is you want and this is solid advice.

BUT I think we should also acknowledge that everything that slows you down in your free time has a reason for existing and most of that is communication or knowledge sharing within a team. Naming conventions, unit tests, and general documentation all exist to help other team members keep up with the pace of changes in the repository. If you're not planning to do something in a team setting or for this to be consumed outside of the work that you do then you don't need these things. But if you want to share with everyone else it's important that you don't totally ignore these things because it will come back to bite you in the long run.

Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

#33

As long as the primary motivator remains profit, rather than increasing the averages person Quality of life, technology will be used to replace people to their detriment, rather than to their advantage. I'm sorry I have no good reason for you why you shouldn't be depressed. I'm afraid, depression might be the appropriate reaction to the state of things.

Even if profit is removed technology will still remain and shackle producers to production lines for the benefit of others by stripping away the autonomy of every individual though. I don't think it's just "profit" that's the problem.

>shackle producers to production lines for the benefit of others

so, for profit?

Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

#34
I can’t imagine another outcome from working in this industry other than disillusionment. That is the only reaction that makes sense to me.

After a while, you realize “well, this is about the best I can do”, and you get actual fulfillment from other parts of your life- I think this is ultimately healthy. I don’t want to be overidentified with my employer, I just want to do my job and focus on the rest of my life.

The industry is good for a paycheck and that’s about it- all the “changing the world” stuff, pheeeeuuw.

Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

#36

I'm having similar issues, and i think i found a way out: stop playing their game. Don't make enterprise software. Don't write unit tests. Don't accept pull requests. Simply write software for yourself and have fun doing it. Forget refactoring code into modules, just fucking code. Don't worry about deployment with k8s, just copy the Python script to your production folder and run it. Fuck all that shit about git bran…

Thats exactly what i did while working on dreaded big data. Got myself a microcontroller, implemented a small arm console and write fucking low level C code optimized the heck of cpu cycles for tiny games, no code reuse, no interfaced, no deadlines, no refacto, no security, no network, no politics. Barely version control (with appropriate "update" commit messages). Kept me sane while doing those things at work.

Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

#37
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's generally an unpopular and unwelcome opinion here, but I agree with you 100%. edit: and i'll happily take those downvotes, they are delicious thank you.

you are not getting downvotes because people are disagreeing with you

Stop lying

Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

#39
I have also experience close to burnout and recovered multiple times, in the process I have lost very precious relationships, and entire years were spent in darkness. I also have friends who have been in tech for close to ten years, and are close to burning out though they would never admit to such. This is the nature of the beast, all things that appear glamorous on the outside ( Hollywood, Finance, Tech, many nonprofits) is very rotten on the inside.

You can't change the past, but you can recalibrate your expectations and medidate on what went wrong. Here are some thoughts, and I will be very harsh:

1. Your co-workers may be amazing, but they were never your friends. You ran a business and rented their years to help them build a nest egg, of which you would claim the majority share had it hatched. Alas, the business failed and thus, you no longer add value to each other's lives. Move on.

2. There's what you love, and there's what you do. It's best to keep some distance: because no one cares about what you love. VCs are vultures and this is well known, but they are also reflecting the reality of the market. In the market you're just a vendor. Think about all the food stands that you have walked past in your life, within each stand is an immigrant family who slave away for decades hoping for a better life. Have you ever thought about them and gave them time/money for their suffering? No, you only cared them inso far as they can cook for you. This is how others saw you.

3. Big companies, and indeed most big institutions is made by a silent majority of the defeated. Many have experienced what you have said and have long made their peace. They found joy elsewhere, and found distance between themselves and their work.

4. Find self worth and self-love outside of your role in the machine, there's the product you produce to trade time for money, and then there's you. They are different things. Imagine Instagram influencers who post pictures of themselves but feel depressed when they don't get enough likes. This is you right now, you're looking for external validation from how big your integer is in some database. You have to look elsewhere.

Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

#40

I think the fundamental flaw is trying to be 'successful'. Playing that game invariably requires you to pretend to be what you think the market wants. I would suggest you think about building something you want that you find fun. If you're a scuba diver, build a dive computer. If you're a woodworker make a tool for making the best use of a board. The most important thing is you absolutely don't plan on making it a wo…

For most people it's not about trying to be successful. It's about not having to be stressed out daily about basic needs like home, health, transport, kids upbringing etc. Unfortunately it all costs a lot of money these days, which makes you take a compromise for the sake of security for you and your closest relatives.
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