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> The real trick is that caring about anything in the modern corporate workplace is a mistake If I could go back 20 years and give myself one piece of mental h

by flukus 6y ago

> The real trick is that caring about anything in the modern corporate workplace is a mistake If I could go back 20 years and give myself one piece of mental health advice, this would be it.

Brian_K_White 6y ago
This is an "I told you so" to myself. For all of my carreer I avoided big corporate companies because I just assumed I would hate it, even though at least in the past it maybe sounded more glamorous and I could probably make a lot more money. Recently, through no action of my own, my company was sold to a much larger company. Well I was right. And you have nailed the essential heart of it I think. You just have to not care about what you're doing, how well it could be done, or what tools you're using to do it. Which is just no way to live. But you still have to excel and look good somehow, even with no freedom of movement to excel IN. All you can do is do the pre-scribed wrong things, well.
- aahortwwy 6y ago
  > You just have to not care about what you're doing You do have to care, you're just mistaken about what it is people in big corporate companies are actually doing. What they're doing is advancing their own careers and those of their network. > how well it could be done Reflected in the rate of advancement, which can be actively maximized through effort and attention. > what tools you're using to do it. The "work" is in fact one of several tools used to advance the career. This is why it is so frequently performed with little care or love. Often it only matters to the career to the extent that it can be declared "done." Most companies lack mechanisms to tie what happens later back to the original doer, so the marginal benefits of care and quality to the career are low. If you care about the actual "work" and craft it's best to find a place with little to no concept of advancement, in my opinion. EDIT: Some people really are just phoning it in for a paycheck, and who can really blame them? Others who may appear to be lazy or careless simply have a different set of priorities. If those priorities offend you but the person is nevertheless succeeding, probably a good idea to move away from that environment.
- 8note 6y ago
  This has not been my experience at a big tech company(well, amazon) There's plenty of leeway for choosing solutions and who's responsible for what kind of failures. I for one have spent a while trying to make sure I just have to throw an exception(with increasingly better messages), and somebody else needs to solve the problem

by flukus 6y ago

> The real trick is that caring about anything in the modern corporate workplace is a mistake If I could go back 20 years and give myself one piece of mental health advice, this would be it.

Brian_K_White 6y ago

This is an "I told you so" to myself. For all of my carreer I avoided big corporate companies because I just assumed I would hate it, even though at least in the past it maybe sounded more glamorous and I could probably make a lot more money. Recently, through no action of my own, my company was sold to a much larger company. Well I was right. And you have nailed the essential heart of it I think. You just have to not care about what you're doing, how well it could be done, or what tools you're using to do it. Which is just no way to live. But you still have to excel and look good somehow, even with no freedom of movement to excel IN. All you can do is do the pre-scribed wrong things, well.

aahortwwy 6y ago
> You just have to not care about what you're doing You do have to care, you're just mistaken about what it is people in big corporate companies are actually doing. What they're doing is advancing their own careers and those of their network. > how well it could be done Reflected in the rate of advancement, which can be actively maximized through effort and attention. > what tools you're using to do it. The "work" is in fact one of several tools used to advance the career. This is why it is so frequently performed with little care or love. Often it only matters to the career to the extent that it can be declared "done." Most companies lack mechanisms to tie what happens later back to the original doer, so the marginal benefits of care and quality to the career are low. If you care about the actual "work" and craft it's best to find a place with little to no concept of advancement, in my opinion. EDIT: Some people really are just phoning it in for a paycheck, and who can really blame them? Others who may appear to be lazy or careless simply have a different set of priorities. If those priorities offend you but the person is nevertheless succeeding, probably a good idea to move away from that environment.
8note 6y ago
This has not been my experience at a big tech company(well, amazon) There's plenty of leeway for choosing solutions and who's responsible for what kind of failures. I for one have spent a while trying to make sure I just have to throw an exception(with increasingly better messages), and somebody else needs to solve the problem