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There was a post on HN a couple days ago about a loss of tech optimism. I've been searching for a bit and unable to find it for linking. It (and the associated

by madrox 6y ago

There was a post on HN a couple days ago about a loss of tech optimism. I've been searching for a bit and unable to find it for linking. It (and the associated comment thread) had no answers. This feels like as close as you can get to an answer. My advice to anyone struggling with disillusionment in tech: get a job doing software at a non-tech company with a mission you care about. You'll remember that technology is in service of something. My years in entertainment are some of my favorite in my career to date.

filoleg 6y ago
While i somewhat agree with your advice, i think the solution you propose is incomplete/omitting (not on purpose) some important parts. I would rephrase it as "find a software job at a non-tech company that works in the industry or with the topic that you enjoy/care about". Otherwise, you get all the negatives of working for a non-tech company with none of the benefits, since working a software job at a non-tech company, you don't get much respect/recognition and you are treated as a cost center, not profit center. We complain a lot that at tech companies, management doesn't listen to our suggestions or acts however they see fit by disregarding engineers' opinions, but it gets much much worse in that aspect at non-tech places. Of course there are tons of positives in that arrangement too, but I think they are pretty obvious and there is no need to discuss them. Which is why, I believe, the best of both worlds (if you are tired of working in tech) is working a software dev job at a non-tech company in an industry that you are into. My guess is that, for you, it was entertainment. For someone who is into music and sound synthesis, working at a DAW company (like Ableton) or at a small company working on VSTS and synths would be a great idea. For someone who is interested in physics, working as a software engineer at some college research lab would be great (e.g., Georgia Tech has GTRI, which employs a lot of software engineers who assist research teams in various disciplines like bio, chem, physics, any kind of engineering, etc.). For someone who is into neuroscience, working at something like Paul Allen's Brain Institute would be fun, I imagine. For someone into avionics, [...], you get the idea. What I am driving at, it isn't just a binary tech vs. non-tech. Writing code in tech, you are aligning the work (tech) with the industry/interest (tech). With non-tech companies, you are aligning the work (tech) with industry/interest (non-tech). And imo, your enjoyment and just overall happiness would be much better at a non-tech job that works in the industry/within the topic you are already passionate about, rather than just some random non-tech company that pushes papers. There is a lot of learning and happiness to be found in working cross-disciplinary jobs like that. P.S. Just to clarify, because I know this tends to irk people in a wrong way at times, I use terms "software engineer" and "software dev" interchangeably (both throughout this comment and in general). I don't make a distinction, even though I know some people get very passionate about this topic.
- madrox 6y ago
  I guess I tend to use the terms "mission" and "topic" interchangeably ;)
jodrellblank 6y ago
Was it "No more bold visions of the future"? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24882565 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24882565
- madrox 6y ago
  That was it! Thanks! I would add the link if I could still edit

by madrox 6y ago

filoleg 6y ago

While i somewhat agree with your advice, i think the solution you propose is incomplete/omitting (not on purpose) some important parts. I would rephrase it as "find a software job at a non-tech company that works in the industry or with the topic that you enjoy/care about". Otherwise, you get all the negatives of working for a non-tech company with none of the benefits, since working a software job at a non-tech company, you don't get much respect/recognition and you are treated as a cost center, not profit center. We complain a lot that at tech companies, management doesn't listen to our suggestions or acts however they see fit by disregarding engineers' opinions, but it gets much much worse in that aspect at non-tech places. Of course there are tons of positives in that arrangement too, but I think they are pretty obvious and there is no need to discuss them. Which is why, I believe, the best of both worlds (if you are tired of working in tech) is working a software dev job at a non-tech company in an industry that you are into. My guess is that, for you, it was entertainment. For someone who is into music and sound synthesis, working at a DAW company (like Ableton) or at a small company working on VSTS and synths would be a great idea. For someone who is interested in physics, working as a software engineer at some college research lab would be great (e.g., Georgia Tech has GTRI, which employs a lot of software engineers who assist research teams in various disciplines like bio, chem, physics, any kind of engineering, etc.). For someone who is into neuroscience, working at something like Paul Allen's Brain Institute would be fun, I imagine. For someone into avionics, [...], you get the idea. What I am driving at, it isn't just a binary tech vs. non-tech. Writing code in tech, you are aligning the work (tech) with the industry/interest (tech). With non-tech companies, you are aligning the work (tech) with industry/interest (non-tech). And imo, your enjoyment and just overall happiness would be much better at a non-tech job that works in the industry/within the topic you are already passionate about, rather than just some random non-tech company that pushes papers. There is a lot of learning and happiness to be found in working cross-disciplinary jobs like that. P.S. Just to clarify, because I know this tends to irk people in a wrong way at times, I use terms "software engineer" and "software dev" interchangeably (both throughout this comment and in general). I don't make a distinction, even though I know some people get very passionate about this topic.

madrox 6y ago
I guess I tend to use the terms "mission" and "topic" interchangeably ;)

jodrellblank 6y ago

Was it "No more bold visions of the future"? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24882565 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24882565

madrox 6y ago
That was it! Thanks! I would add the link if I could still edit