OP is simply 'disillusioned' with corporations and business. And 'disillusioned' is the wrong word; he has simply learned 1st hand what they are like [a load of bullshit].
Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help
321–330 of 754 posts
Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help
#322> Then I worked for a tech giant, and then for a high-growth unicorn. It shocked me how dilbertesque they both were. Full of politicians, and burnt out engineers in golden handcuffs who can't wait to get out, and meaningless business speak, and checked out employees who pretend they're "excited" about everything all the time. The young, wide-eyed engineers seem hopelessly naive to me now. I don't know this person. I…
> "And when you yourself are cynical, everyone else's excitement rings hollow and you think they are pretending and are actually checked out.."
This resonates with me a lot. When people are excited, I sometimes become critical/jealous and think they're possibly doing it for attention.
It takes a shift in perspective and humility to appreciate other people's point of view and share their excitement...
Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help
#323Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Moving a bit further from the specifics, it's worth noting that this is not a natural state of affairs. Humans evolved to be in groups of about 30-100 people who they knew their whole lives Yup, there are still some anarcho-primitivists who think technology was a bad deal for us humans overall, and that living in a tribal setting of hunters-gatherers is best. The infamous "unabomber manifesto" was broadly advocatin…
UB started with the right observations, but arrived at the wrong means prescriptions. He wandered off alone into the weeds, in both senses. A wiser realization is that it's those in established power and the rich who are actively or willfully ignorantly sabotaging the planet and condemning billions of people to relatively more poverty, misery, disease, and death. A million people nonviolently showing up to the seats…
The simplest way to accomplish your goals would be through unions integrating and syndicating ultimately culminating into a general strike and overthrowing existing power structures.
In practice however, the national guard will start shooting beforethen (see: Haymarket square massacre, Battle of Blair Mountain), so you better stock up on weapons just in case.
Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help
#324Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Nonviolently showing up"? I might or might not agree but let's face it, most of us won't even bother to show up at a voting place on election day. People just don't care. Maybe they'll kvetch to their acquaintances about how bad the other side is, but overall there's a lot of complacency. Similarly, you don't need to arrest corrupt politicians, you just need to not vote for them. Support a primary challenger if they…
I think the problem in the current US political system is that a tiny majority of votes wins you everything. If this won you the 49% you deserve, then things would be different.
This is why you should simply strike. 10% of the US population striking would exert immense power and make the ruling class crumble.
Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help
#325I 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 nonpr…
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Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help
#326Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Likewise, with CI/CD. And don't get me started on the monkey-work that is TDD. You might argue that it improves code quality. But, it's hard to make the case that it improves job satisfaction. If you move more work from the creative, problem-solving bucket into the busy-work bucket, the result will not be personal fulfillment. A lot of the comments in this thread are pretty funny to me. CI systems are awesome when…
> CI systems are awesome when they are working. > writing good tests is really helpful for me I'd wager it's partly generational. If you came up in the agile world, then you likely see the upside but not the down since there's no reference point for the latter. Because, of course it's cool that these CI build processes kick off at commit points (or whatever). And, of course, the near instantaneous feedback that somet…
I disagree pretty strongly with your analysis. I have experience winging it without tests and CI systems. Of course it's not impossible or all bad, I still did it at the time because it was fun and I didn't know better.
Then I started working at a big company with a good engineering culture, I learned about writing tests and related tools, and had a much better experience. Now working without these things feels like driving without a seat belt, or maybe using a grinder without safety glasses (car accidents are too rare to be similar to bugs being introduced...).
I still have fun writing personal projects. It's just better with tests and CI. It sounds like you are pointing at issues with management styles that just happen to exist at the same time as useful tools like this, but I think they are almost if not completely orthogonal.
Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help
#327People will say you're burned out, and they're not wrong... but this doesn't address the substance of the issue. To be an engineer or a scientist today means tolerating a lot of the things you've mentioned. I would amend your list to engineers that had a passion for EE and value human life (who doesn't?) but took a job at Raytheon. The things you identify are valid issues. If you're worn so thin you can't ignore them…
Thanks for the advice. This all sounds right. > I found that learning about politics and history-- specifically the history of engineering-- really helped me sort out my feelings. Is there any specific reading you'd recommend?
A short history of machine tools: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0262180138/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b...
This book really makes you appreciate all of the "things" we have today and how much goes into making everything. It is also humbling to me to know that every tool we have no matter how accurate was made with tools that were less accurate. Remember we started from literally rocks.
Does someone have something similar for the history of computers?
Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help
#328I wrote nearly this exact message in my mood journal today. I haven't had it quite as bad as the author, but I'm extremely, and it feels like permanently, burned out of working for a business/corporation. I fundamentally hate it. I walked out of my first corporate job after a month and now that I'm on my second, all I can think about is walking out. I hate it. I hate it so much. Every single day feels like I'm ruinin…
If it’s really that bad, why not just quit? The worst case is you’ll be forced to bag groceries out of necessity, and perhaps then you’ll have a newfound appreciation for the corporate job. All upside.
Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help
#329There are 2 things you can do.
1) quit this ecosystem completely, go to countryside grow fruits, raise animals in farm.
2) Find a software job where you are a billable resource, aka consulting. You do this for x$/h. If you are good no one will bat an eye. You don't have to deal with investor, upper management. Every month you put y hours for x*y $ no bullshit. If you smell bullshit you walk out.
Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help
#330Earlier quoted context omitted.
For what is worth, "there's the product you produce to trade time for money, and then there's you" is precisely what alienation from labor feels like, and you're advocating that one must just accept it. People have a deep need to relate as full human beings to their work. Trying to be content with finding self-worth only outside of work doesn't solve burnout. Work is a big chunk of our time and energy. Humans need to…
Yes, I was surprised by that line. I tried to do that. 10 years ago I was a newly minted Ph.D. and my wife and I had to solve the 2 body problem and we compromised with our jobs so we could both be employed together in a nice town with a relatively low cost of living and a great place to raise a family. Our lives outside of work were fantastic! Great friends, nice house, lots of weekend activities, got my first pup (…
I appreciate reading your story. I'm ~6 years out of school having been in large companies and am wondering if it's normal to have the joy sucked out like I'm experiencing. If you don't mind me asking, how did you end up finding the small startup job? When I look at the job boards they're often dominated by the big guns or it's hard to sort through lots of small (oftentimes shady) postings - I don't know where to go to find small-by-design companies or similar mindset jobs.