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> How do I know what the source of the problem is? You don’t like working for FANG. That seems like a totally normal sane response to me. I’d be more concerned

> How do I know what the source of the problem is? You don’t like working for FANG. That seems like a totally normal sane response to me. I’d be more concerned about the people who love that corporate environment rather than those it doesn’t give meaning to. Some people like the security and routine and structure (understandable), some people like the politics (weird), but I don’t think you need to overthink this. There’s nothing wrong with you. I think in life we need a combination of meaning and joy to be reasonably satisfied. Joy mostly comes from relationships, meaning from work and other responsibilities eg being a parent, helping other people. Working for a big corporation puts food on the table, but it’s hard to see any meaning there. Actually, I can imagine working at old Apple or SpaceX could give you meaning. But most corporates are not driven by meaning, but by profit, which can be completely meaningless - travelling in a hundred different directions, for example. And these giants can also disconnect you from the world, like what is the impact of me writing this test suite for FANG’s internal HR system, why do I even care. Startups provide more meaning (ok, some startups) but it’s a totally different game and I’m not sure most people are suited to them. All the good startup people I know are outliers - surprisingly they are not motivated by cash; they are prepared or enjoy to work really hard; they have diverse skill sets rather than being the best coders; they are not just fine with risk, they like it because it’s a bit of gambling and they need that. There are many other options to consider. What if you worked in tech for a non tech company? Your skills then have a massive impact. What about an organisation like the Khan Academy rather than a business? What if you made tech your hobby not your career? Teaching, training, consulting? Working only part of the year and spending the rest volunteering in developing nations (met people who do that)? As others have pointed out, take a break, get out of your environment, you need to see the bigger picture and remember what your really enjoy. Travel and spend time with people you love.

samvher 7y ago
This response resonates a lot with me. To give one perspective on working in non-tech: I'm pretty much the only tech person in my organization surrounded by economists and agronomists. I love it, it gives me a lot of autonomy and potential for impact. It's also really fun to mix different disciplines and learn how everyone else approaches things. It's an NGO so definitely not FAANG-level compensation but the work feels meaningful which I think makes up for that. Can't really compare to FAANG though, never worked there.
greggman2 7y ago
> You don’t like working for FANG. That seems like a totally normal sane response to me. I’d be more concerned about the people who love that corporate environment rather than those it doesn’t give meaning to. There are lots of people at Amazon, Google, and I'm sure Facebook that find meaning in their job. Improving search actually does help people, billions of them. Improving the web stack (Chromium) also helps billions of people. I'm guessing the people at Oculus (Facebook) believe they are helping to invent the future. Pocket computers used to = newton/palm/ce, VR is at that first level but many believe it will advance to iPhone level (more ubiquitous)a at some point. I know people working on robotics at Amazon who love it.
- jpetso 7y ago
  Except that working on stuff for FAANG doesn't necessarily make things better and instead just helps with monetization and/or lock-in. Is it really an improvement to cover more of the search results page in ads, centralize ever more functionality on that page which pushes out smaller/independent competitors, track users more comprehensively and optimize mobile loading times by creating a corporate-controlled, Google-hosted format that companies are coerced into instead of doing the same thing with standards-based, distributed technologies? Is it really an improvement to the "web stack" if Chromium kills diversity in the browser engine space, blurs the lines between client software and Google account, then proceeds to limit ad-blockers' capabilities via extension API changes? While at the same time Google web sites happily go about cross-advertising for more monoculture and deliberately not supporting Firefox even where it provides all required functionality. (Similar examples exist for other market-dominating companies and products.) One man's improvement is another one's trading the long-term health of tech and business ecosystems for short-term convenience and stock market returns. It's tempting to believe in the usefulness of one's work is when the massive scale and complexity of FAANG companies make it so easy to miss the forest for the trees.
- randomsearch 7y ago
  Yeah, I think you’re right in that I’ve come across as _too_ dismissive. I’m sure many people do find meaning at Amazon etc on specific projects, I just think it’s extremely unlikely that _most_ of their employees will; in large corporations there are few cutting edge robotics jobs etc and lots of jobs that don’t really have a purpose outside of serving the corporation. I guess I’m talking about the majority.
agotterer 7y ago
You are touching on something called the "4 pillars of happiness": 1) Having a purpose and meaning 2) Feeling as though you are in control 3) Feeling as though you are making progress 4) Being connected to other like-minded people If you Google it you'll see similar ways of describing the same concept. I've personally used it as a framework in my professional career to help me understand why I'm unhappy. You can then use that information to identify opportunities to improve happiness or as a realization that a pillar won't improve. What you do from there is up to you. I personally strive for 4 out of 4, I can survive (sometimes) with 3 out of 4, anything less and it's time for a change.
- randomsearch 7y ago
  That’s great, thanks! Made me think a lot about number 4 - don’t have enough in my life. Something to work on.

samvher 7y ago

This response resonates a lot with me. To give one perspective on working in non-tech: I'm pretty much the only tech person in my organization surrounded by economists and agronomists. I love it, it gives me a lot of autonomy and potential for impact. It's also really fun to mix different disciplines and learn how everyone else approaches things. It's an NGO so definitely not FAANG-level compensation but the work feels meaningful which I think makes up for that. Can't really compare to FAANG though, never worked there.

greggman2 7y ago

> You don’t like working for FANG. That seems like a totally normal sane response to me. I’d be more concerned about the people who love that corporate environment rather than those it doesn’t give meaning to. There are lots of people at Amazon, Google, and I'm sure Facebook that find meaning in their job. Improving search actually does help people, billions of them. Improving the web stack (Chromium) also helps billions of people. I'm guessing the people at Oculus (Facebook) believe they are helping to invent the future. Pocket computers used to = newton/palm/ce, VR is at that first level but many believe it will advance to iPhone level (more ubiquitous)a at some point. I know people working on robotics at Amazon who love it.

jpetso 7y ago
Except that working on stuff for FAANG doesn't necessarily make things better and instead just helps with monetization and/or lock-in. Is it really an improvement to cover more of the search results page in ads, centralize ever more functionality on that page which pushes out smaller/independent competitors, track users more comprehensively and optimize mobile loading times by creating a corporate-controlled, Google-hosted format that companies are coerced into instead of doing the same thing with standards-based, distributed technologies? Is it really an improvement to the "web stack" if Chromium kills diversity in the browser engine space, blurs the lines between client software and Google account, then proceeds to limit ad-blockers' capabilities via extension API changes? While at the same time Google web sites happily go about cross-advertising for more monoculture and deliberately not supporting Firefox even where it provides all required functionality. (Similar examples exist for other market-dominating companies and products.) One man's improvement is another one's trading the long-term health of tech and business ecosystems for short-term convenience and stock market returns. It's tempting to believe in the usefulness of one's work is when the massive scale and complexity of FAANG companies make it so easy to miss the forest for the trees.
randomsearch 7y ago
Yeah, I think you’re right in that I’ve come across as _too_ dismissive. I’m sure many people do find meaning at Amazon etc on specific projects, I just think it’s extremely unlikely that _most_ of their employees will; in large corporations there are few cutting edge robotics jobs etc and lots of jobs that don’t really have a purpose outside of serving the corporation. I guess I’m talking about the majority.

agotterer 7y ago

You are touching on something called the "4 pillars of happiness": 1) Having a purpose and meaning 2) Feeling as though you are in control 3) Feeling as though you are making progress 4) Being connected to other like-minded people If you Google it you'll see similar ways of describing the same concept. I've personally used it as a framework in my professional career to help me understand why I'm unhappy. You can then use that information to identify opportunities to improve happiness or as a realization that a pillar won't improve. What you do from there is up to you. I personally strive for 4 out of 4, I can survive (sometimes) with 3 out of 4, anything less and it's time for a change.

randomsearch 7y ago
That’s great, thanks! Made me think a lot about number 4 - don’t have enough in my life. Something to work on.