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Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

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Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

#381

Post by vmception »

s5300 wrote: post #273
vmception wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My former co-founder thinks we are friends, he is a talentless hack that speaks business world bullshit and ideas that don't make any sense because they don't. I just needed the +1 to get funded. It worked. He is your typical idea guy: no skills, no capital, no ability to execute. I think we have good synergy for his ability to get behind a vision and repeat it to other people the same-enough way. Reading this thread…

Holy crap lmao. Are you completely oblivious as to how much of a dick you sound like? Here's a societies claimed moral compass nice thing to do: tell him you aren't friends, possibly give him the reasons why, and leave it like that. Don't come to HN trying to humble yourself in posting this. I bet you're a ton of fun

Yeah I am a condescending dick - to people with no skills, no capital, no ability to execute.

They don't typically bring anything to the table! I happened to internalize the idea of a co-founder with somewhat of a network to resurrect an idea that needed to be funded, and I can say that yes it did get me/us taken more seriously.

I'm finding solidarity in this thread amongst the engineers that also are annoyed with over embellishing business sales guys that don't have a clue.

Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

#382

Post by mattlondon »

The solution for me in the past has been a religious approach to work-life balance: LEAVE THE OFFICE AT 5 PM. Every day.

Sure have some leeway for the real genuine emergencies, but fixing a random bug or "finishing this off" is not worth hanging around after 5 for.

I did this and went from feeling burnt out, drained, and ultimately crushed at the end of each day, to leaving the office "hungry" and looking forward to coming back in tomorrow to continue fixing that bug or finishing off that thing or whatever with just enough energy remaining to get me through to 5pm again. Life is too short to "dedicate" yourself to a job.

TL:Dr - just do your job, don't be your job.

Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

#383

Post by tallgiraffe »

firecall wrote: post #337
theanine wrote: post #300

I 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…

I've been there, and am still recovering from burn out and a nervous breakdown. Corporates can be hell for me. I used to just want to drive my car into a tree on the way to work. I was so dead inside. Just nothing going on. I'm working from home now. But i'm still burnt out and recovering. I have no creativity. Things that should be straightforward seem pointless and repetitive. When I sit down at my computer I'm fil…

This whole thread, and your comment in particular, resonates. At the very least, knowing this might be the unspoken norm, rather than a personal challenge, that alone helps a ton.

Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

#384

Post by arvinsim »

zozbot234 wrote: post #209
paypalcust83 wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

"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…

> Similarly, you don't need to arrest corrupt politicians, you just need to not vote for them. Support a primary challenger if they're incumbents.

Most of the time, the alternatives aren't any better. That's why some people are apathetic.

Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

#385

Post by arvinsim »

GuiA wrote: post #213
zozbot234 wrote: post #167

Earlier 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…

One can have the viewpoint that on average humans were likely happier 30,000 years ago, and that technology was a bad deal for us overall, without advocating that the solution is bombing society back in time.

I don't think technology is the problem. I think the institutions that install or preserve the structures that cause a lot of people misery is the problem.

Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

#386

Post by redisman »

ajavascriptdude wrote: post #68

this does seem like burnout but there is something else at play here. something which i have felt quite a lot is that in the 90s a lot of programming was creative and fun. it was to challenge authority. it created things like winamp.. it really whips the llama's ass. when is the last time you heard of a recent startup with a title like that? nowadays everyone around me is working on startups or talking to investors w…

The same thing that has happened to every cool thing, we sold out. We are now an industry. I'm sure my 15-year old self would be bummed to hear that but hey, that guy didn't have bills to pay or kids to feed.

Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

#387

Post by gear54rus »

You're disillusioned not with tech but with greedy political idiots who ru(i)n it. Fundamentally it's all simple with tech. You calculate things and apply your logic and experience and then you get a working system if you've done it correctly. No exceptions.

It's when you deal with self-interest and greed of business-people that are just there to bleed you dry you encounter problems.

My advice would be to limit your exposure to all things business in tech and just sit in the corner doing what you can do best: writing programs. Then it becomes fun again.

Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

#389

Post by JSavageOne »

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…

Nobody's glamorizing rural poverty, the point was that our over-compartmentalized work culture is a relatively very recent phenomenon with negative consequences for many people such as decreased work satisfaction, decreased sense of social safety net/community, and loneliness.

It's kind of annoying how every time someone discusses aspects of society that may have regressed from the past, somebody chimes in to remind us that technology has advanced so life is better today. Well obviously, what's your point? Nobody's claiming we should get rid of 21st century technology and start living like medieval peasants.

Re: Extremely disillusioned with technology. Please help

#390

Post by mrmonkeyman »

illiilliiililil wrote: post #380
jacobolus wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

Damn, and I thought it was immoral to breed in MODERN times.

Who will feed you and wipe you later? Robots?
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