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Do I Regret Being 'Just' a Software Engineer?

jacky.wtf

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Re: Do I Regret Being 'Just' a Software Engineer?

#41

Post by jackyalcine »

dasil003 wrote: post #36

The idea of tech as a tool of oppression is something that increasingly bothers me. I got into tech because I just liked building stuff with computers, and at the time I naively thought it seemed democratizing. Looking back I think this was largely because of the general public’s cluelessness about computers and the internet, so technically minded people with a little bit of access had a huge amount of power in shapi…

You should click through some of the links I've included, like https://dyingforaniphone.com/ and see how much money Apple pushes to hide how each of its innovations leads to corruption and straight-up sweat shop behavior (among other companies like Samsung, LG, Microsoft, HP and the like).

Or read more about how the necessary components for our devices like cobalt maintains the slave labor in Africa backed by Western hegemonic forces: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/23/books/review/cobalt-red-s... or the case of oil being pushed for more energy production and the lobbying against green solutions from companies like Exxon and Shell via https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/O/bo185167...

It's not even really about you or how you feel but what this industry is doing. And with the recent Supreme Court rulings, we're going to be lucky if we know if _more_ things go down.

Re: Do I Regret Being 'Just' a Software Engineer?

#43

Post by burutthrow1234 »

Lots of respect to Jacky for writing this. The tech industry truly pays enough money that you can lose sight of solidarity with other workers. Even as shit gets worse and more human rights are privatized you can stay insulated. I once had a coworker brag about how he paid 10k a year for a special medical service to see the doctor faster. Public transit sucks? You just Uber from your condo everywhere. Housing crisis? Idk I got my fully renovated 3-bedroom house downtown.

If you're reading this, just on a tactical level for job hunting one thing I would say is to remove the (+/-) part of the resume. People can do the math on the duration if they care. Maybe even just put the years. I hope you're able to find something that isn't quite as dismal as 99% of tech jobs

Re: Do I Regret Being 'Just' a Software Engineer?

#44

Post by jackyalcine »

ilrwbwrkhv wrote: post #29

I think a big reason why a lot of people in tech feel like this is because tech has been reduced to getting a job and optimizing for total compensation. If you look at employees at Google, you can see that they are there to coast. Intelligent, sharp folks, reduced to mere optimizing for compensation while tweaking an algorithm here and there. Instead what devs need to do especially those who are new to the industry,…

> I remember early 2000s and if you asked anyone who was a good hacker if they want to join IBM they would laugh in your face. That culture needs to return. Where is the Napster of this era? That would give people the fulfillment they want and make them feel useful. A simple way of doing this is to take any popular piece of software and think what the "out there" version will look like and start building it. Maybe punk rock and the hacker culture both need to make a comeback into the mainstream, otherwise FAANG and Leetcode will eat the soul of tech.

I'm glad you mentioned this. I was reading https://diversionbooks.com/books/the-spotify-play/ and the way that hacker culture has become effectively commercial (from anarchist ideals in finance being perverted into cryptocurrency, file sharing into cloud hosting, etc), we have to keep fighting to make control of it hard _while also_ protecting people's safety (bad actors - government or people - will always exist).

Re: Do I Regret Being 'Just' a Software Engineer?

#45

Post by jackyalcine »

tayo42 wrote: post #21

i think this is expecting to much from corporate america. i dont think these problems are unique to tech companies. maybe i missed the point, the post kind of went all over the place at times Are we selling our selves and authenticity to companies? i guess in a way, but we try to get as much as we can out of companies too As far as separating your self from tech and being technologist. I think its like music, the pop…

> i think this is expecting to much from corporate america.

I'll push back on this by adding something from the book, Private Government by Elizabeth Anderson: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691176512/pr.... She makes the case, with evidence and history, how no one in America can get by without using corporations to survive. Until we have free housing and healthcare (instead of bombs falling on the rest of the world), we have no choice but to demand better from corporate America.

> As far as separating your self from tech and being technologist. I think its like music, the pop stuff sucks and is mass produced. tech that used to be cool is mass produced, im sure there is cool stuff out there if you put the work into finding it. like underground music. i think trying to label your self is a mistake in general.

I'll quote what I mentioned at the end: "And to play on an idea of separation of the "art from the artwork" while actively defending their organizations (failing that, their outputs and indirectly their contributions) works to be a free agent of marketing for them. It's similar to a private company opening up a non-profit to launder the notion of doing good to build a moat of social capital. How does one comfortably reconcile that?" In the case of Haiti, a musician decided to run for president. Similar to what happened in America when an actor did, both invoked violent wars on the citizens (one was selling blood and killing people, another dropped bombs around the world and blamed a set of people for a viral disease that they refused to do any research on).

It's nigh impossible to separate something that _can't_ exist without the other. We can try to believe that (hence the use of money to create a bubble).

Re: Do I Regret Being 'Just' a Software Engineer?

#46

Post by alistairSH »

jappgar wrote: post #22
ryandrake wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think of worthwhile software projects as stools with three legs: The business opportunity, the interesting technical problem, and the social/ethical issues. They all need to be good in order to have an acceptable product, IMO. Unfortunately, whenever you read an article about a new technology or read an interview of a founder or something, they spend all their time talking about the first two, and either ignore or…

very few people can afford to be ethical. it's like Joe Rogan trashing factory farms and bragging about only eating wild elk be killed with his bare hands on his private game preserve. writing software for an oil company doesn't make you evil it makes you like everyone else. not particularly helpful nor particularly harmful

But surely there’s a line somewhere? Maybe not a clear line, but at least a fuzzy one.

Just about anything ever created can be used to oppress and do evil. But you don’t have to be the final step that enables that evil.

Rockets - you can build rockets to take us to the moon. And somebody will repurpose it for destruction. But you don’t have to be that somebody.

Re: Do I Regret Being 'Just' a Software Engineer?

#47

Post by jackyalcine »

luzojeda wrote: post #34
lupire wrote: post #27

> I'm looking for work as a senior software engineer. Pairs well with > I don't know how much longer I can comfortably call myself a "technologist"

>a "technologist" ...when this is what being a technologist is today i think it's pretty unfair to skip the rest of his sentence

People tend to be selective in order to make their point. It makes it easier to not have to defend their stance (not saying that's the case here, but it's something I've routinely seen).

Re: Do I Regret Being 'Just' a Software Engineer?

#48

Post by n_ary »

The tech enjoyed unprecedented prosperity and many became super rich between 2010-2020.

Now economy is going through a downturn, things are expected to be bad.

Economy rebalances. Things will get better eventually. But the shockwave will leave some remnants behind. Just need to hold on for a bit.

Re: Do I Regret Being 'Just' a Software Engineer?

#49

Post by pavel_lishin »

coffeebeqn wrote: post #14
pavel_lishin wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think woodworking is also a popular alternative, especially if you've always felt like ten fingers was too many.

I know a lot of woodworkers. It must be that it’s a largely solitary hobby where you get to build very very concrete and useful things that us “not really an engineer” software folks try to compensate for. Me included

Yep. I do a little bit of what someone who doesn't mind insulting carptners could call "woodworking". Having a concrete result is definitely one of the things I enjoy.

Re: Do I Regret Being 'Just' a Software Engineer?

#50

Post by denton-scratch »

delecti wrote: post #31
sz4kerto wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You never ever swap cables between PSUs. It's not a Dell thing - you must use the cables that ship with the PSU. Many people have fried their mainboard like you.

You're talking about something different. In the early 2000s, before modular PSU cables, Dell used non-standard PSU power connector wiring arrangements. The 20-pin mobo power plug coming out of the PSU was wired differently than the ATX standard at the time, and swapping hardware could fry a motherboard. https://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=339053 Edit: Better source https://superuser.com/questions/905705…

Yeah, I wasn't "swapping" PSU cables; the cable was part of the PSU. I replaced a Dell PSU with a standard one, and No more motherboard.

Manufacturers who pull this type of incompatibility shit risk their reputation. I never went near anything with a Dell label again until last year, when I bought a second-hand laptop (I don't attempt laptop upgrades and repairs).

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