I left an AdTech company about a year ago. I went to learn more about data engineering and applied machine learning. I learned a phenomenal amount, but I really

I left an AdTech company about a year ago. I went to learn more about data engineering and applied machine learning. I learned a phenomenal amount, but I really grew to dislike the advertising industry. The incentives are hilarious misaligned, as the article discusses at length. To be honest, a large part of my ethical discomfort was not only about implicitly contributing to the surveillance state, but about the waste of the use of computing power and time and work. Even if we succeed, and deliver the perfect recommendation to every single shopper, then <Large Client> might make X% more ROI from their website. Maybe a yay for <Large Client>'s stockholders? Unless you know, Twitter talks about them this week... How is the world a better place because I'm working at my job today? I don't make my senior software engineer salary working for myself, but I've "digitized" 4 separate businesses since I left. It feels good to build tangible products and write software that make someone's life easier.