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I'm done with coding

neelc.org

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Re: I'm done with coding

#51

Post by Nevermark »

WD-42 wrote: post #33

I’d never heard of viva insights. Looked it up. Do people actually use this stuff? Who? Why? It looks like something middle management would use to generate a few plots in order to justify their useless jobs. I’d run from any employer that seriously bought into something like this.

The market for tools, data and services which provide a helpful and comforting fuzzy veneer of activity and intentionality to the work of individuals, companies, and educational systems that are floundering is exceedingly large.

Re: I'm done with coding

#52

Post by abc-1 »

Respect for standing up for what he believes in. A lot of people in this industry would have no problem building drones that bomb children if it gave them a good “total comp”.

Re: I'm done with coding

#55

Post by esperent »

harryquach wrote: post #42
esperent wrote: post #7

If the author is reading this: thank you for having the strength to say no to morally wrong work, despite the money, despite pressure from your family. Good for you. You stood up for your morals. I wish that more people had your strength. You are experiencing an identity crisis over this, which is normal. Writing about it is good. Talking to a therapist would probably be good too, if that works for you. If I can give…

> In fact, I’ll just live off dividend income and try to get my new IT startup Fourplex off the ground It’s easy to say no when the money is not needed.

Don't be dismissive of people's challenges in life, especially when they have the strength to share them. Money isn't the only cause of pressure in the world.

Re: I'm done with coding

#56

Post by hansvm »

ivewonyoung wrote: post #18
tombert wrote: post #13

> I’ve tried to discuss this with my mom, and she kept telling me how “lucky” I am for working at Microsoft... I don't think I worked on any unethical part of Apple, I just worked on the indexing and caching for iTunes, but I really hated working there, and it was frustrating that whenever I complained about it, people would remind me how lucky I was to have a job at Apple. I survived 2.5 years there, but eventually…

Could you explain why you hated working there

At YT, I hated that you needed two weeks of prep for the meeting to uncover two weeks of prep for the meeting where you could get preliminary access to the data source you needed to figure out if your job description was even viable.

I get that you need internal controls or whatever, but just log my queries, and if I'm stalking an ex then fire and sue me. It's hard to optimize conversion rate for superchat or whatever if it's a 3-month process to find out if the source of data I plan to use is actually the right source of data.

Is Apple any better? My friends on the inside say it's worse, but I'm also just one guy, and their stock is going up and to the right. Make your own decisions.

Re: I'm done with coding

#57

Post by ForTheKidz »

atomicnumber3 wrote: post #37
ivewonyoung wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you explain why you hated working there

I never worked for apple, but huge companies with established, incumbent cash flows and huge moats can bear a truly, spectacularly, mind-bogglingly incredible amount of internal dysfunction while still generally going forward. This can make it really crushing to be a sensible, well-intended single person inside this beast where you have essentially no power yourself.

Yes. And part of why you're paid exorbitantly at these places is to absorb, manage, and counteract this dysfunction. This can be exhausting and lonely work.

Re: I'm done with coding

#58

Post by dtquad »

>After all, Edward Snowden had a “stable” federal government job (...) and he gave it up to stand up for the right to privacy

Edward Snowden was primarily critical of Obama era foreign policy in the Middle East not being notably different from Bush. That is also why he send the data to writers and journalists whose work was primarily critical of US foreign policy.

Of course he understandably pivoted to become a privacy activist when the Internet overnight wishcasted him into that role and ignored his criticism of US foreign policy.

Re: I'm done with coding

#59

Post by ForTheKidz »

hahajk wrote: post #9

His mom telling him he's "neurodivergent and won’t survive at a smaller company"... unfortunately I am familiar with this type of mother.

I can say it's been far easier for my neurodivergent ass to survive at a small company where everyone knows each other and can see the work put in. Difficulties with socialization and consistency of working hours—both things I struggle with—are much easier to deal with when you clearly have each others' backs and won't shirk the work.

Sadly starting my own company, I realized how hard it is to work with founders who are neurodivergent in a different and incompatible ways. Just be prepared to examine the culture closely to figure out if it's a fit for you.

I'm now at a massive household brand name company and every day I want to rip my eyeballs out and give up on capitalism forever. Whoever thought big government was incompetent needs to understand the colossal waste and inefficiency of private enterprise will always dwarf that of the public sector.

Re: I'm done with coding

#60

Post by dingnuts »

harryquach wrote: post #42
esperent wrote: post #7

If the author is reading this: thank you for having the strength to say no to morally wrong work, despite the money, despite pressure from your family. Good for you. You stood up for your morals. I wish that more people had your strength. You are experiencing an identity crisis over this, which is normal. Writing about it is good. Talking to a therapist would probably be good too, if that works for you. If I can give…

> In fact, I’ll just live off dividend income and try to get my new IT startup Fourplex off the ground It’s easy to say no when the money is not needed.

It's actually worse than that. By holding his stocks he remains invested in the company in every meaning of the word. The dividends he's living on are the literal fruit of the proverbial sin that caused him to quit. In order to be morally honest about divesting himself of this line of business he needs to sell his stock.

He should invest it in something else, that he believes in, so that any dividends are thus just.

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