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I sometimes try to imagine how differently things would have played out if this whole startup culture and the massive media buzz around it had not existed. The

I sometimes try to imagine how differently things would have played out if this whole startup culture and the massive media buzz around it had not existed. The oligopoly that big companies have on tech media has really only helped big companies ultimately. In spite of what the media says, I think that the past 10 years were the worst time in history to be an indie software developer. Indie developers got absolutely trashed by VC-funded developers. Passion has lost, money has won. Pretty much everyone who started a passion-project over the past 10 years and who didn't manage to raise VC funding for it have probably been forced to give it up and are now working for some evil mega-corporation instead.

closeparen 10y ago
Or, as every millennial with a liberal arts education learned the hard way, it's really fucking hard to contribute enough value to some organization for it to pay you a living these days, and passion rarely if ever comes within a hundred thousand miles of cutting it.
- GuiA 10y ago
  I don't know, I keep hearing that electricians and plumbers and similar jobs aren't running out of work anytime soon, and that you can make a very very good living out of these kinds of technical occupations, especially in a small community. Maybe it's not that hard to contribute value to an organization; just that the organizations we've built for ourselves are flawed to start with. Perhaps the lesson here is that a lot of what we're doing is just wankery. Honestly, 90% of the startups you hear about don't meaningfully improve anyone's life in a way they couldn't do without. Monthly boxes full of crap? The new social network du jour? I've been in the tech industry for about a decade, I'm starting to have enough money that I could live a very comfortable life with a medium salary job, and I'm starting to think more and more about whether it's really worth it.

closeparen 10y ago

Or, as every millennial with a liberal arts education learned the hard way, it's really fucking hard to contribute enough value to some organization for it to pay you a living these days, and passion rarely if ever comes within a hundred thousand miles of cutting it.

GuiA 10y ago
I don't know, I keep hearing that electricians and plumbers and similar jobs aren't running out of work anytime soon, and that you can make a very very good living out of these kinds of technical occupations, especially in a small community. Maybe it's not that hard to contribute value to an organization; just that the organizations we've built for ourselves are flawed to start with. Perhaps the lesson here is that a lot of what we're doing is just wankery. Honestly, 90% of the startups you hear about don't meaningfully improve anyone's life in a way they couldn't do without. Monthly boxes full of crap? The new social network du jour? I've been in the tech industry for about a decade, I'm starting to have enough money that I could live a very comfortable life with a medium salary job, and I'm starting to think more and more about whether it's really worth it.