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Hey! You are not alone. I started getting this feeling around 2-3 years back and the feeling still lingers in me. I want to get out of tech (its been around 9

Hey! You are not alone. I started getting this feeling around 2-3 years back and the feeling still lingers in me. I want to get out of tech (its been around 9 years in tech for me), and build real stuff, stuff you could feel and touch and adore. I would quit tech, if i figured out what i wanted to build (for real). I would augment my craft with tech, but i wouldn't want to be working in tech to make a living. And no, you are not depressed for gods sake! You are absolutely normal! The problem with the tech industry as i see it, is that you never attain mastery over your craft. It is a never ending game. You always have something new to learn - the paradigms keep shifting and priorities keep changing. While that may excite the majority, there are a bunch of us who would like to master our craft to perfection - and this sense is hard to attain in tech (please feel free to disagree, and if you are the lucky few please get in touch). I have envied craftsmen too. But if you talk to them, they would probably envy us - since we make more money than them. Best thing i figured is, use your privilege of making more money than majority and secure your future so you could buy some time to explore the craft you want to perfect. It should be on the side. And once you are clear you want to do it for the rest of your life - quit your job and move on to work on your craft. Hope that helps!

flyGuyOnTheSly 9y ago
>And no, you are not depressed for gods sake! You are absolutely normal! The problem with the tech industry as i see it, is that you never attain mastery over your craft. It is a never ending game. You always have something new to learn - the paradigms keep shifting and priorities keep changing. While that may excite the majority, there are a bunch of us who would like to master our craft to perfection - and this sense is hard to attain in tech (please feel free to disagree, and if you are the lucky few please get in touch). I have envied craftsmen too. That's a great point. It does seem like an onslaught at times. But I don't think that's quite what I am upset with. I LOVE learning new things! It just seems like all of the things that I have been learning recently have only benefited large faceless corporations or people that are otherwise doing not-good-work in this world. Like lining their pockets with the profits of whatever pointless game they seem to be playing. Eking out a few percentage points off of a website's bounce rate or cutting a few milliseconds off of somebody's program runtime just seems so utterly pointless to me now. Maybe it's just the types of people I have been working for? Maybe I should try to get some work doing what I do for a non-profit or an organization that helps people... instead of a capitalistic one that drains their wallet? I don't know... I just feel like I am wasting my talents doing what I am currently doing is all. >But if you talk to them, they would probably envy us - since we make more money than them. I know that they do. I have plenty of buddies who work in factories and they tell me all the time "You don't work! You just sit on a computer!" The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence I suppose. Thank you very much for that comment!
- rajeshmr 9y ago
  > Eking out a few percentage points off of a website's bounce rate or cutting a few milliseconds off of somebody's program runtime just seems so utterly pointless to me now. Exactly! It seems utterly pointless indeed. > I don't know... I just feel like I am wasting my talents doing what I am currently doing is all. Take any software corporation today, and see what kind of work they do - talk to insiders! You will inevitably notice a pattern. Its all about these kinds of things - shaving a few seconds off here, optimizing there. We are like a cog in a machine. Maybe the engineers who got to work on iphone would have had that feeling of accomplishment of having contributed to something big - but the subsequent iterations would have been incremental at best! Now take the example of a carpenter , the instructions are the same for him, but every project is new though the underlying skillset is the same! And he can take what he learns from his previous project and apply it to his next project and improve his craft. Like someone in the comments said, what you did 10 years ago is pointless now. And if you are interested, check this out : https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/pakxby/silicon-valley-is-inserting-its-biases-into-nearly-every-technology-we-use https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/pakxby/silicon-va... The tech industry may be doing more harm than good. I too love learning new stuff, they are just different for me these days from tech. How about learning art or music ? they will be new, and they will keep you engaged. What i was referring to was that, for example - if you play music your feedback loop is almost immediate to work with. Your senses are engaged and its easier to get into a flow! Now imagine the way software construction is structured in big corporations - your feedback loop is way into the future, with no way to assess your contributions' impact. And even if you did have an impact, for whom ? As you said, for some capitalist wanting to fill their pockets with profits who in turn want to uphold shareholder supremacy! I think i got verbose there ;) but i do understand what you are going through, and i hope you come up with something that adds value to people and make you a happy person! My good wishes!

flyGuyOnTheSly 9y ago

>And no, you are not depressed for gods sake! You are absolutely normal! The problem with the tech industry as i see it, is that you never attain mastery over your craft. It is a never ending game. You always have something new to learn - the paradigms keep shifting and priorities keep changing. While that may excite the majority, there are a bunch of us who would like to master our craft to perfection - and this sense is hard to attain in tech (please feel free to disagree, and if you are the lucky few please get in touch). I have envied craftsmen too. That's a great point. It does seem like an onslaught at times. But I don't think that's quite what I am upset with. I LOVE learning new things! It just seems like all of the things that I have been learning recently have only benefited large faceless corporations or people that are otherwise doing not-good-work in this world. Like lining their pockets with the profits of whatever pointless game they seem to be playing. Eking out a few percentage points off of a website's bounce rate or cutting a few milliseconds off of somebody's program runtime just seems so utterly pointless to me now. Maybe it's just the types of people I have been working for? Maybe I should try to get some work doing what I do for a non-profit or an organization that helps people... instead of a capitalistic one that drains their wallet? I don't know... I just feel like I am wasting my talents doing what I am currently doing is all. >But if you talk to them, they would probably envy us - since we make more money than them. I know that they do. I have plenty of buddies who work in factories and they tell me all the time "You don't work! You just sit on a computer!" The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence I suppose. Thank you very much for that comment!

rajeshmr 9y ago
> Eking out a few percentage points off of a website's bounce rate or cutting a few milliseconds off of somebody's program runtime just seems so utterly pointless to me now. Exactly! It seems utterly pointless indeed. > I don't know... I just feel like I am wasting my talents doing what I am currently doing is all. Take any software corporation today, and see what kind of work they do - talk to insiders! You will inevitably notice a pattern. Its all about these kinds of things - shaving a few seconds off here, optimizing there. We are like a cog in a machine. Maybe the engineers who got to work on iphone would have had that feeling of accomplishment of having contributed to something big - but the subsequent iterations would have been incremental at best! Now take the example of a carpenter , the instructions are the same for him, but every project is new though the underlying skillset is the same! And he can take what he learns from his previous project and apply it to his next project and improve his craft. Like someone in the comments said, what you did 10 years ago is pointless now. And if you are interested, check this out : https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/pakxby/silicon-valley-is-inserting-its-biases-into-nearly-every-technology-we-use https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/pakxby/silicon-va... The tech industry may be doing more harm than good. I too love learning new stuff, they are just different for me these days from tech. How about learning art or music ? they will be new, and they will keep you engaged. What i was referring to was that, for example - if you play music your feedback loop is almost immediate to work with. Your senses are engaged and its easier to get into a flow! Now imagine the way software construction is structured in big corporations - your feedback loop is way into the future, with no way to assess your contributions' impact. And even if you did have an impact, for whom ? As you said, for some capitalist wanting to fill their pockets with profits who in turn want to uphold shareholder supremacy! I think i got verbose there ;) but i do understand what you are going through, and i hope you come up with something that adds value to people and make you a happy person! My good wishes!