4 ms·

Shit, are you me? You're just being over 30, welcome. Those documentaries you watched on your old CRT TV while growing up were showing you fiction. The tech i

by idoby 6y ago

Shit, are you me? You're just being over 30, welcome. Those documentaries you watched on your old CRT TV while growing up were showing you fiction. The tech industry is an ad mill. Academia is about innovation killing fiefdoms. What you need to realize is that for an institution, the first priority is maintaining homeostasis, and that means not letting you do something that might risk resources or upsetting the established order. There's a reason why the hackers on TV were called rebels. They founded new institutions because the incumbents wouldn't let them play. You want the hacker ethos? Make it yourself, that's what it's about.

jacknews 6y ago
lol, metoo To some extent it's always been this way, but I think a combination of extreme financialization, globalization, and practices like scrum (which means well, I think, but is often used as a cudgel to 'inspect' developer performance) have made average developer life even less pleasant in the last decade.
- cybwraith 6y ago
  I think a huge part of it is the move from desktop apps as a sold product, to disposable web/web-wrapped apps. This happened mostly over the past 10-15 years and while I'm older than OP, I noticed a similar drop in quality of life for programmers with certain values and motivations during this time. Scrum-style and "agile-in-name" processes really hammer it home and are practically designed to create burnout. I would suggest getting into development for embedded systems. The jobs don't seem as numerous as in VC-fueled web/app start-up style development, but when your product is expected to function without the ability to update its firmware/software near-instantaneously as modern webapps do, I think it changes the style of development cycle pretty dramatically.
godzillabrennus 6y ago
Yeah, start your one thing. I’ve never worked a W2 job and I’ve been able to work on interesting problems my entire career.
- idoby 6y ago
  What's W2?
  - ranc1d 6y ago
    basically means working as a contractor in the US
  - leereeves 6y ago
    W2 is the form on which wages are reported to the IRS (American tax collectors) by an employer.
  - kube-system 6y ago
    There are two worker classifications in the US which refer to the tax forms they get: "W2": An employee. A regular job. "1099": Independent contractor, freelancer.
    - mywittyname 6y ago
      To expand on this, the differences come down to taxation. There are taxes in the use called FICA that are half-paid for by the employer for W2 workers and not covered for 1099 employees. Also 1099 workers are able to deduct business-related expenses from their income ta.
      - one2know 6y ago
        The most important distinction is clients large and small will try to rip off 1099 workers. The state labor office will not help 1099 workers. They must hire lawyers sometimes to get payment.
- mindentropy 6y ago
  Curious, what type of interesting problems did you work on?
  - 6y ago
flanker 6y ago
> Shit, are you me? That's what I said, I suppose there are lots of people in their early 30's having a dilemma. I'm also struggling with something similar, but I recognise I have much to attain in level of expertise but do I want to do that? Is another question.
- y-c-o-m-b 6y ago
  > I suppose there are lots of people in their early 30's having a dilemma I'm approaching my 40s and I've had this dilemma since I was 25. I used to strive for being a top performer despite my hatred for working in this industry. I accelerated through the lower ranks and significantly increased my salary, but my happiness plateaued very early on. Over the last few years I've learned to lay low and give just enough to not get fired. I couldn't care less about the company or my work, I just want to clock out at the 8 hour mark - and not a minute later - then go work in my garden. I found this to be the optimal balance between financial security and my happiness. If you've ever read "The Gervais Principle" - https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-principle-or-the-office-according-to-the-office/ https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-principle-... - you can classify me as a "Loser" on that spectrum.
  - flanker 6y ago
    >The Gervais Principle I cannot thank enough for the article, absolutely nailed it. I have seen & been part of a startup growing from a mid stage to a unicorn and now after reading it I can connect the dots, it all make sense in such exhilarating way. My journey till now has been from over performing looser to a looser which is not bad. I'm seeing a pattern though, every 8-9 month I over-perform become a looser then get completely disillusioned and go off to a backpacking retreat. This worries me a bit now.
enraged_camel 6y ago
Yep. It's worth noting that, had Wozniak stayed in his safe job at HP, he would never have become a legend.
gcheong 6y ago
"Those documentaries you watched on your old CRT TV while growing up were showing you fiction." Ironically perhaps a truer picture of the industry was probably the fiction series "Halt and Catch Fire".

by idoby 6y ago

jacknews 6y ago

lol, metoo To some extent it's always been this way, but I think a combination of extreme financialization, globalization, and practices like scrum (which means well, I think, but is often used as a cudgel to 'inspect' developer performance) have made average developer life even less pleasant in the last decade.

cybwraith 6y ago
I think a huge part of it is the move from desktop apps as a sold product, to disposable web/web-wrapped apps. This happened mostly over the past 10-15 years and while I'm older than OP, I noticed a similar drop in quality of life for programmers with certain values and motivations during this time. Scrum-style and "agile-in-name" processes really hammer it home and are practically designed to create burnout. I would suggest getting into development for embedded systems. The jobs don't seem as numerous as in VC-fueled web/app start-up style development, but when your product is expected to function without the ability to update its firmware/software near-instantaneously as modern webapps do, I think it changes the style of development cycle pretty dramatically.

godzillabrennus 6y ago

Yeah, start your one thing. I’ve never worked a W2 job and I’ve been able to work on interesting problems my entire career.

idoby 6y ago
What's W2?
- ranc1d 6y ago
  basically means working as a contractor in the US
- leereeves 6y ago
  W2 is the form on which wages are reported to the IRS (American tax collectors) by an employer.
- kube-system 6y ago
  There are two worker classifications in the US which refer to the tax forms they get: "W2": An employee. A regular job. "1099": Independent contractor, freelancer.
  - mywittyname 6y ago
    To expand on this, the differences come down to taxation. There are taxes in the use called FICA that are half-paid for by the employer for W2 workers and not covered for 1099 employees. Also 1099 workers are able to deduct business-related expenses from their income ta.
    - one2know 6y ago
      The most important distinction is clients large and small will try to rip off 1099 workers. The state labor office will not help 1099 workers. They must hire lawyers sometimes to get payment.
mindentropy 6y ago
Curious, what type of interesting problems did you work on?
- 6y ago

flanker 6y ago

> Shit, are you me? That's what I said, I suppose there are lots of people in their early 30's having a dilemma. I'm also struggling with something similar, but I recognise I have much to attain in level of expertise but do I want to do that? Is another question.

y-c-o-m-b 6y ago
> I suppose there are lots of people in their early 30's having a dilemma I'm approaching my 40s and I've had this dilemma since I was 25. I used to strive for being a top performer despite my hatred for working in this industry. I accelerated through the lower ranks and significantly increased my salary, but my happiness plateaued very early on. Over the last few years I've learned to lay low and give just enough to not get fired. I couldn't care less about the company or my work, I just want to clock out at the 8 hour mark - and not a minute later - then go work in my garden. I found this to be the optimal balance between financial security and my happiness. If you've ever read "The Gervais Principle" - https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-principle-or-the-office-according-to-the-office/ https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-principle-... - you can classify me as a "Loser" on that spectrum.
- flanker 6y ago
  >The Gervais Principle I cannot thank enough for the article, absolutely nailed it. I have seen & been part of a startup growing from a mid stage to a unicorn and now after reading it I can connect the dots, it all make sense in such exhilarating way. My journey till now has been from over performing looser to a looser which is not bad. I'm seeing a pattern though, every 8-9 month I over-perform become a looser then get completely disillusioned and go off to a backpacking retreat. This worries me a bit now.

enraged_camel 6y ago

Yep. It's worth noting that, had Wozniak stayed in his safe job at HP, he would never have become a legend.

gcheong 6y ago

"Those documentaries you watched on your old CRT TV while growing up were showing you fiction." Ironically perhaps a truer picture of the industry was probably the fiction series "Halt and Catch Fire".