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Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

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Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

#351

Post by mrslave »

kitotik wrote: post #301
yownie wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

not really sure what point you're trying to make here. You don't believe in biology?

Perhaps it was a reference to nature vs. nurture, and how they can both play a part in outcomes.

That's what I read into it.

While nature vs nurture is fun to speculate on, when raised in criticism of another's work it is usually only speculation and otherwise unproductive. Also often ignored is that they are somewhat conflated insofar as people's nature creates environments that then (not independently) nurture.

Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

#352

Post by hanspeter »

taurath wrote: post #253
Balgair wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> People got rid of their apartments, set up Winnebagos in the parking lot. Thats... a lot more about rent prices than people wanting to be at work all the time.

It was also just one guy, I think.

Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

#354

Post by stonedartist »

Thorentis wrote: post #233
TomMckenny wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All accurate and objective and good for everyone to know early rather than late. 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 and thus making catastrophic deception nearly impossible. Likewise vast sums of wealth did not exist nor total social and fiscal isolation surrounded…

I agree with the OP comment, and also with this one. It is important to understand two things in coping with the state of the world in my opinion. 1) The reality is you need to find validation and fulfilment outside of work, because in our current society you are just a drone. 2) Don't be depressed because it seems like this is how it's always been. It hasn't. Our work culture is broken. People never used to be so fa…

>I can't think of anything more depressing that spending my lunch break in a work cafe with people I don't want to talk to, being flooded with fluorescent light, and thinking about how the rest of my working life will be spent in places like this.

This is the best way to put it! It's all make believe and facade. As naive as this sounds, we have to separate our work time and personal time. I don't know if that means we should have dual personalities akin to having different themes/profiles on phones, or we should have a clear separation of activities, but without one, is what leads to OPs path, and I have been there.

Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

#355

Post by gcc_programmer »

xiaolingxiao wrote: post #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 nonpr…

This

Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

#356

Post by dang »

nnoitra wrote: post #69
throwaway839246 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the advice. It's really good. > 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? I know what you mean and know what you're getting at. But I feel compelled to point out this particular example isn't quite the same…

How old are you? Why would you be at all surprised that VCs lie?

Please don't cross into personal attack on HN. And please don't cross-examine other users. That's not curious conversation, which is what we're here for.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

#357

Post by justatdotin »

starbugs wrote: post #7

Take a break. If necessary, a long break. What you write sounds alarmingly familiar to me. It's probably not as simple as just calling it "burnout", but that may be one component of what you're going through. I also learned the hard way that it's important to look after myself. And it took way too long when looking back today. You seem to have invested way too much of yourself into this and maybe you have lost track…

I once took 15 years off, partly cos I was uninspired by the dominant environment, and came back enjoying it all once again.

Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

#358

Post by hobofan »

treis wrote: post #166
cblum wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's how I read it too. I've recently started doing that and it's been a breath of fresh air. I don't really like the stuff I work with, which is services. I think I've become good at it given the feedback I get from my peers every review cycle, but I really don't like it. I felt burned out for a long time because of that. Recently I've simply been doing what I'm interested in, in my spare time. That's learning abo…

It's hard to do just the fun stuff because that's not what makes good software. It's the unit tests and pull reviews and such that make the software reliable and covering all the niggling edge cases. And that ultimately is what makes a piece of software good.

> covering all the niggling edge cases

You don't have to always cover all the edge cases. If you write software for fun, you can often just bake-in assumptions and neglect a lot of edge cases.

Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

#359

Post by pault »

jacobolus wrote: post #309
Thorentis wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with the OP comment, and also with this one. It is important to understand two things in coping with the state of the world in my opinion. 1) The reality is you need to find validation and fulfilment outside of work, because in our current society you are just a drone. 2) Don't be depressed because it seems like this is how it's always been. It hasn't. Our work culture is broken. People never used to be so fa…

> Working the land, being close to home, running a family business, belonging to a small town of people you all known, having the social safety net of many people that are close to you and your family, being an independent contributor in the town's economy, etc. etc. This is how things were a few hundred years ago. Let’s not overglamorize rural poverty. This life came with 20–40% infant mortality and a very high rate…

GP is talking about pre-WWII civilization, not medieval serfdom.
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