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The reason I got into tech/coding as a teen was the diy punk rock ethos. I remember spending weeks trying to figuring out if I could break drm in the latest vid

The reason I got into tech/coding as a teen was the diy punk rock ethos. I remember spending weeks trying to figuring out if I could break drm in the latest video game ('tricking' starforce in splinter cell 3 was such a cool thing). Then I moved on to academia where I felt the ethos extended. Academia was life consuming and by the end I just had to leave. Now that I'm job hunting post-phd, I'm trying to rekindle that excitement in something...and I don't feel it. Grinding leetcode or memorizing some companies 'leadership principles' has been the antithesis of creativity. Everything feels like marketing. I wish I had kept up with old friends instead of spending my weekends in the office. Funny enough, I've been brewing beer/kombucha and cheesemaking as a distraction. I guess I'm getting older?

mianos 6y ago
You will find there are still a lot of companies that value people and broad skills. Some company leadership principles are even anti leadedship principles and factory pop-out leet coding developers.
- unphased 6y ago
  > companies that value people and broad skills This. They're out there. I had to go through a lot of them to get to where I am now and the journey has been worth it. Also, there are lots of little tricks that you can use to make the journey more comfortable. Some of it is technical and some of it is EQ-related/interpersonal. It's very important to step outside the box and think about what kind of work you could be proud of achieving, and then you can take steps toward honing the skills that will get you there. For instance, an example of little things that make your job related duties more streamlined will surprise you with how much of a difference it makes for making the daily routine more enjoyable. It really adds up. The example: We have to fill in timesheets every 2 weeks. Well I sat down one day and spent an hour writing a bookmarklet in js that autofills the timesheet, hacking through the silly event handlers so I don't have to manually click and type on 20 cells. I even had to come back to it a few months later to add in logic to handle PTO and Holidays... I'm so glad I wrote it. Shared it with my coworkers too, which greatly increased its return on investment.
Pet_Ant 6y ago
You loved being a maker. Being creative and making thinfs you care about. Jobs want you to be a machine. Reliably and mechanically creating things they care about. It’s not tech, it’s that your motivation is internal and not something they provid

mianos 6y ago

You will find there are still a lot of companies that value people and broad skills. Some company leadership principles are even anti leadedship principles and factory pop-out leet coding developers.

unphased 6y ago
> companies that value people and broad skills This. They're out there. I had to go through a lot of them to get to where I am now and the journey has been worth it. Also, there are lots of little tricks that you can use to make the journey more comfortable. Some of it is technical and some of it is EQ-related/interpersonal. It's very important to step outside the box and think about what kind of work you could be proud of achieving, and then you can take steps toward honing the skills that will get you there. For instance, an example of little things that make your job related duties more streamlined will surprise you with how much of a difference it makes for making the daily routine more enjoyable. It really adds up. The example: We have to fill in timesheets every 2 weeks. Well I sat down one day and spent an hour writing a bookmarklet in js that autofills the timesheet, hacking through the silly event handlers so I don't have to manually click and type on 20 cells. I even had to come back to it a few months later to add in logic to handle PTO and Holidays... I'm so glad I wrote it. Shared it with my coworkers too, which greatly increased its return on investment.

Pet_Ant 6y ago

You loved being a maker. Being creative and making thinfs you care about. Jobs want you to be a machine. Reliably and mechanically creating things they care about. It’s not tech, it’s that your motivation is internal and not something they provid