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The article felt extremely relatable, but it did not arrive at any concrete point and has nothing original to say. It is talking about personal motivation and t

The article felt extremely relatable, but it did not arrive at any concrete point and has nothing original to say. It is talking about personal motivation and then leaps to describing the underpaid workers. Yes, I think most people in the valley can see your points and numerous discussions have already been had about them. So what? Edit: what I would have liked/expected to read is a story of someone making the aforementioned $300k+ year, making enough, leaving and the difficulties/joys of adapting to their new life exploring what they want.

seltzered_ 8y ago
I believe the author, Wendy Liu, is currently working to try to find those points. She's working on a masters thesis on this subject, taking notes from a number of books on labor, tech, culture (see http://bookmarker.dellsystem.me/complete http://bookmarker.dellsystem.me/complete )
fullshark 8y ago
The piece's conclusion seems to be unions are a panacea which I am highly skeptical of.
charmides 8y ago
I felt similarly about it. The piece lacked cohesion, but the author still made some good points and I think it's fine that they have been discussed frequently before. Regarding start-ups, I think Wendy is a little bit too willing to make generalizations based on her own experience. There are some exciting high-tech start-ups out there in other spaces than advertising (Perfect Day comes to mind, which is working on synthetic milk). There are definitely opportunities out there for doing rewarding work. Besides that, I agreed with Wendy's dismal assessment of the tech giants. I find it sad that some talented engineers choose to devote their careers working for companies like Facebook.
autokad 8y ago
I was kinda hoping for: "I should stop acting like an 8 year old child" moment, but I suppose that's not happening yet. was hoping for any of the following: businesses are made up of people. no one group of people are better than the other, since tech is also businesses, people shouldn't have inflated ideas that tech is "saving the world / making it a better place and all those other businesses are bad evil doers riding on the backs of everyone else". or We all have to do boring, non-impactful work at some point. especially starting out. We need to work hard to get to positions that make large impacts. or joining a start up isn't a great financial decision unless you really believe in what they are doing

seltzered_ 8y ago

I believe the author, Wendy Liu, is currently working to try to find those points. She's working on a masters thesis on this subject, taking notes from a number of books on labor, tech, culture (see http://bookmarker.dellsystem.me/complete http://bookmarker.dellsystem.me/complete )

fullshark 8y ago

The piece's conclusion seems to be unions are a panacea which I am highly skeptical of.

charmides 8y ago

I felt similarly about it. The piece lacked cohesion, but the author still made some good points and I think it's fine that they have been discussed frequently before. Regarding start-ups, I think Wendy is a little bit too willing to make generalizations based on her own experience. There are some exciting high-tech start-ups out there in other spaces than advertising (Perfect Day comes to mind, which is working on synthetic milk). There are definitely opportunities out there for doing rewarding work. Besides that, I agreed with Wendy's dismal assessment of the tech giants. I find it sad that some talented engineers choose to devote their careers working for companies like Facebook.

autokad 8y ago

I was kinda hoping for: "I should stop acting like an 8 year old child" moment, but I suppose that's not happening yet. was hoping for any of the following: businesses are made up of people. no one group of people are better than the other, since tech is also businesses, people shouldn't have inflated ideas that tech is "saving the world / making it a better place and all those other businesses are bad evil doers riding on the backs of everyone else". or We all have to do boring, non-impactful work at some point. especially starting out. We need to work hard to get to positions that make large impacts. or joining a start up isn't a great financial decision unless you really believe in what they are doing