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Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

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Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#321

Post by pier25 »

shriek wrote: post #306
pier25 wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> eventually came to the conclusion that most of the world's problems are social/political and won't be fixed by technology I agree. I work at an education company on a digital product. I got on board excited because I deeply believe education is the best way to change the world. After 4 years I've realized tech is just another tool. The quality of education depends entirely on the quality of the educators and the pe…

> Tools are pretty much irrelevant. I won't go so far as to call them irrelevant cause I've personally found them very useful during my education. Whilst they're useless by themselves if the quality of the content itself is useless they can definitely help studying more easier and efficient.

People learned as much as today with paper and pencil. Digital books and tools are certainly convenient, but don't really contribute to the quality of the education.

There's this study by the OECD which finds that not only there is no correlation between maths/reading/science skills and the use of computers, but in some cases using computers only makes things worse:

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-34174796

https://www.compareyourcountry.org/pisa-digital

In France they recently completely banned tablets and phones in primary schools.

Estonia, Finland, and Singapore have some of the best K12 education in the world and they barely use computers if at all.

The evidence is slowly piling up that learning, at least until before college (where most of the cognitive skills are learned) does not benefit from using digital tools.

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#323

Post by BucketSort »

NeoBasilisk wrote: post #266
ben509 wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>We have seen demonstrable evidence for over twenty years now that if you build a way to more easily inform yourself on reality, facts, historical accuracy, etc that people would rather use that system to justify their own preconceptions and biases than seek out truth that might influence their beliefs. I'm fairly certain the problem is the systems are written to reward those behaviors. It's technically not hard to s…

You don't need social media to learn that climate change is a thing. Just read Wikipedia. Look at the citations. And yet, a sizable portion of the US public believes it's a hoax.

Actually the problem with climate change deniers is that they doubt the source and cannot reason about the issue themselves. This is actually one example of needing a system to help people reason. Just telling someone something will not convince someone unless they trust the authority of the person telling them OR if they can reach the conclusion themselves. Thanks for this comment, it actually made me further realize how important such systems are.

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#325

Post by valesco »

ggggtez wrote: post #147
walmandurebu wrote: post #22

I love to read these kind of stories, It's hard to quit everything in life and pursue a new way of living. Not everybody has the guts to do it. I fall in this group of people that are too afraid for the unknown and sit in the job not seeing the point of it almost everyday.

I think what you'll find if you read more of these stories is that it's not bravery that causes people to switch, it's fear. Read it again.

I concur. I switched from law to programming out of fear of doing the boring paperwork part of every project all my life, and wasting it.

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#326

Post by jeofken »

enimodas wrote: post #317
jeofken wrote: post #169

For years I struggled to become financially independent (as Mr Money Mustache). Years upon years of watching the clock until it hit 17:30, hating the dumb coders who made a mess for me to clean up (because I know FP, and if we had types these bugs wouldn’t be here in the first place!). A year ago, I pulled the plug, and retired. Finally, I could work on my dream project every day. I did so for 6 months, and travelled…

What did you invest in? When I briefly checked these things they were mostly targeted to an American audience, with their on average well performing stock markets. EU markets seem to be a lot worse.

Bought 50% S&P500, and of the remaining 1/3 each in Swedish index (my home), 1/3 FTSE (UK), and 1/3 DAX (Germany). If may or may not be perfect, but perfect is the enemy of done.

When selecting funds just sort by price and buy the cheapest ones, as fees (like interest) are a recursive (exponential) function.

In Germany I use Comdirect which is great, in Sweden I used Avanza when I lived there.

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#327

Post by nabnob »

danans wrote: post #157
nabnob wrote: post #36

I've been having the same existential crisis for a couple years now. I started working at a FAANG company right out of college, then after a bunch of personal health problems ended up taking a leave of absence that I didn't return from. I took a long break from software and started learning politics, philosophy, and history, and eventually came to the conclusion that most of the world's problems are social/political…

> But why is my own intellectual curiosity more important than whether someone else gets to eat? It's not, but unless you are working on something that is directly impoverishing someone to this point, then the economic or social system that allows people to go hungry and without basics is more to blame than your particular role. People don't go hungry anymore due to lack of societal resources. It's due to either a la…

I agree with you, what I was trying to say is that I've had an internal dilemma about pursuing my career or making it a priority to tackle those systemic issues.

I know that my individual contribution to capitalism by working for a major corporation is a drop in the bucket, and simply refusing to work for a corporation has no real impact on poverty worldwide. But I could definitely put more energy into radical action than I do right now.

Re: Why I Quit Tech and Became a Therapist

#328

Post by mertnesvat »

nabnob wrote: post #36

I've been having the same existential crisis for a couple years now. I started working at a FAANG company right out of college, then after a bunch of personal health problems ended up taking a leave of absence that I didn't return from. I took a long break from software and started learning politics, philosophy, and history, and eventually came to the conclusion that most of the world's problems are social/political…

How did you come to the conclusion that "the world's problems are social/political and won't be fixed by technology".

I'm still shocked how come you don't see the effect of the 21st century where in the past all those world wars, genocides, ignorance etc.

Really sorry but I couldn't find any profession other then engineering and science if you ask me what makes us prevail in the long run!

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