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This article more seemed to suggest that extremely intelligent people are more likely to get into trouble than any apparent root cause to me. In Schwartz and Tu
by codyb 11y ago
This article more seemed to suggest that extremely intelligent people are more likely to get into trouble than any apparent root cause to me. In Schwartz and Turing's case, while the law was misguided, it compounded their stressors and took their lives. In the one fellows case he apparently broke into someone's house wasted and was arrested. And there was the guy announcing his suicide on twitter (that might be the same guy, can't remember), a serious call for help.
I'm not so sure this article made me think it's endemic to the software industry. Large numbers of people commit suicide in the United States and abroad every year. Maybe it's the cultural stressors of bills, and grades, and social exclusion, and yada yada yada onward and onward for as long as you'd like that contributes to the high rates of suicide in high stress environments.
And then this weird tangential aside about Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump and how they'd be equally disastrous convinced me this was an emotional plea for something (the vague sentiment that we should treat eachother like humans regardless of seniority when humans don't particularly have a great track record on that front and while... positive is just as kooky if not much more so than anything Bernie Sanders has said) not particularly well grounded in reality and with no proposed solutions besides a call for empathy.
If you want people to stop commiting suicide you need to take away their major stressors which compound their depressive states. Correct the law so that gays are free to be themselves. Pay people living wages so their bank accounts have at least a small buffer. Make sure health care and education are affordable and accessible.
So in a way his potential future vote for Bernie based on Bernie's empathy was the wrong path to the right choice. It's not just in this individual instance that Bernie feels empathetic towards man, but in almost all instances of Bernie's recorded public profile. Whether it comes to the oppression of African Americans and gays, or to the inability to pay bills or access health care of education of the lower and middle class Americans he represents, Bernie has consistently been on the empathetic side of the equation.
But it's his policy proposals which make Bernie the right man for the job, not his empathy which shaped them.
- solipsism 11y agoTo paraphrase Nietzsche, to live is to experience stressors. The changes you're talking about might (might!) lower the number of stressors in people's lives and thus have an overall positive impact on mental health, but a better path toward that goal, in my opinion, is to encourage people to seek the help necessary to deal with stressors. Edit: you did mention making mental healthcare accessible, but it wasn't the brunt of your message.
- miserable1980 11y agoWhen I started software (90s), the tech industry didn't pay that well but did have a strong geek culture. I felt my managers didn't understand the work I did but they left me alone to do it. Timelines were in months and you largely self-managed yourself. Tools weren't great but didn't change very much. Integration testing was done by a separate QA function and programmers would slack off a little bit when it came to proper unit testing and documentation. I miss that world (with perhaps one exception - that has to do with women in the field). Today, we have: 1) Insane deadline pressures 2) Managers asking for constant status updates 3) A general culture where people are on call outside of work hours or supposed to be reachable 4) While programmer salaries are high, they have essentially kept up with inflation. Under fields are generally worse off I admit. 5) No QA depts for the most part 6) Expectation that developers need to be more "professional" rather than produce great software. 7) Reduced employment mobility because developer interviews seem to have an insane standard. As a reference, for most jobs I got until 2005, I had a 30 minute to 1 hour interview with no coding questions. 8) 2-3 week shipping cycles (I posit scrum deadlines are like shipping deadline of old) 9) constant change in the tools of the trade. IT JUST NEVER ENDS. So what happened? I think the end of the dot com era produced a few elite companies like Google. There was a cargo cult mentality that has turned most of software development into the same. When people ask, I don't recommend a career in software any more. It definitely leads to unhealthy habits in average/above average people and, unless you have strong social ties, probably induces depression in many people. If you are an elite, Harvard-level, Google-level person, sure .. welcome to the gauntlet and have fun. For sane, average/above average people, I don't know what to say. There are few other paths that lead to financial stability these days. The software industry gives decent financial stability but extols a heavy cost in many.
- mojuba 11y agoLet's take an edge case: you are a slave in America, 18th century. Here, some antidepressants and some free psychotherapy time for you. Happier now?
- solipsism 11y agoQuite an edge case to be both a slave in 18th century America and in the software development industry, which is what we're talking about here.