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I agree! And the list could be so much longer... It seems also that precisely the privacy-destroying centralizing ad-selling machine companies, are the ones th

I agree! And the list could be so much longer... It seems also that precisely the privacy-destroying centralizing ad-selling machine companies, are the ones that occupy all our mind-space and have the money and technically interesting challenges. (Oh, and there is also fintech!) I now am doing ok freelancing (mostly for my previous employer and some other small music software companies from Berlin) and doing some open-source on the side. But it is often hard to motivate myself to get out there and network or find stuff to earn money. Sometimes I consider going back to academia, but my feeling is that over the last years the attempts at quantifying academic output have risen competition to completely unhealthy levels (as my academic friend says: if he has to think in 6-month/project/paper timelines, where is the "long-term" in publicly funded research?). At least it is easy to find a job that pays decent, which is a very good position to be in compared most of my friends of my generation. And I love software engineering itself. Yet I often wish I could just go on UBI and do open-source stuff all day.

platinumrad 9y ago
I'm glad someone's bringing up fintech. I'm not at all convinced that HFT, etc. provide any social benefit whatsorver. At least cryptocurrencies have interesting applications with regard to decentralization and autonomy.
erezsh 9y ago
I'm in a very similar position. Grew up excited for the tech revolution, and became extremely disappointed when I realized it meant people tweeting their lunch and sharing fakebook news. I'm now a freelancer because I can't stand the thought of contributing my expertise to an employer who only cares about his bottom line (99% of workplaces, as far as I can tell), but unfortunately it feels more like escapism than activism. I wish there was a place for retro-techies to band together and try to figure out a way out of this mess. I know there are groups who are trying to create alternatives (for example, scuttlebutt is a nice community), but their interactions are mostly project-driven, and not necessarily pragmatic. I feel like if enough talented developers (and designers, managers, etc.) group together for a good cause, we can make a difference. More difference than just creating a better browser, or a better twitter. Well, anyway, back to reality..

platinumrad 9y ago

I'm glad someone's bringing up fintech. I'm not at all convinced that HFT, etc. provide any social benefit whatsorver. At least cryptocurrencies have interesting applications with regard to decentralization and autonomy.

erezsh 9y ago

I'm in a very similar position. Grew up excited for the tech revolution, and became extremely disappointed when I realized it meant people tweeting their lunch and sharing fakebook news. I'm now a freelancer because I can't stand the thought of contributing my expertise to an employer who only cares about his bottom line (99% of workplaces, as far as I can tell), but unfortunately it feels more like escapism than activism. I wish there was a place for retro-techies to band together and try to figure out a way out of this mess. I know there are groups who are trying to create alternatives (for example, scuttlebutt is a nice community), but their interactions are mostly project-driven, and not necessarily pragmatic. I feel like if enough talented developers (and designers, managers, etc.) group together for a good cause, we can make a difference. More difference than just creating a better browser, or a better twitter. Well, anyway, back to reality..