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Unfortunately I feel it is hard for me to disagree with the overall sentiment of what you are describing. But I'd like to offer a little glimmer of hope from s

Unfortunately I feel it is hard for me to disagree with the overall sentiment of what you are describing. But I'd like to offer a little glimmer of hope from someone with too many gray hairs to count. Computers are still machines, and we still tell them what to do by programming them. It is still possible to stay out of what you describe above, it is still possible to work on low-level code, on real products, on things that matter to people and companies. The reality though is that the mundane things are where the money is though. While we all enjoy "cool" things, millions of companies need their accounting and payroll running, their truck drivers planned, their work schedules planned, ... So you might find that more interesting things happen in e.g. industrial engineering companies or electronics companies, more so than in web companies. It's an entirely different world than what you describe above. Hackaday might be a more interesting hangout than Hacker News for you ? So let's not lose our excitement and sense of wonder, after all it's all bits and bytes and we tell them how to behave.

IanSanders 6y ago
> Computers are still machines, and we still tell them what to do by programming them. It is still possible to stay out of what you describe above, it is still possible to work on low-level code, on real products, on things that matter to people and companies. Yes it is possible, but in practice one will (sometimes have to) spend most of the time with devices/technologies that make one die inside a little. Part of the problem is that "doing the right thing" is often not competitively viable. This may not be specific to IT only, either.
- sharker8 6y ago
  Some of the most inspirational stories in tech are along the lines of "I had this terrible job where we had to use tech X so I wrote adapter Y in more cool tech Z and automated the whole thing and took long lunches."
  - dr-detroit 6y ago
    Everyone on HN is gunning to be the next SF billionaire they abhor the kind of jobs/work that involve tedium.
marcosdumay 6y ago
> Hackaday might be a more interesting hangout than Hacker News for you? The Hackaday focus on the dumbed-down format of video presentation is infuriating. It would be very nice to fund something community-driven, focused on actual content, with the same subject. Until then, I think the few articles on the Hackaday subject that appear here on HN are worth more than the entire Hackaday site. (I still visit both, of course, but tend to only look at the headlines there.)
davidjnelson 6y ago
> So let's not lose our excitement and sense of wonder Exactly. It’s wild the potential that many of us hold.

IanSanders 6y ago

> Computers are still machines, and we still tell them what to do by programming them. It is still possible to stay out of what you describe above, it is still possible to work on low-level code, on real products, on things that matter to people and companies. Yes it is possible, but in practice one will (sometimes have to) spend most of the time with devices/technologies that make one die inside a little. Part of the problem is that "doing the right thing" is often not competitively viable. This may not be specific to IT only, either.

sharker8 6y ago
Some of the most inspirational stories in tech are along the lines of "I had this terrible job where we had to use tech X so I wrote adapter Y in more cool tech Z and automated the whole thing and took long lunches."
- dr-detroit 6y ago
  Everyone on HN is gunning to be the next SF billionaire they abhor the kind of jobs/work that involve tedium.

marcosdumay 6y ago

> Hackaday might be a more interesting hangout than Hacker News for you? The Hackaday focus on the dumbed-down format of video presentation is infuriating. It would be very nice to fund something community-driven, focused on actual content, with the same subject. Until then, I think the few articles on the Hackaday subject that appear here on HN are worth more than the entire Hackaday site. (I still visit both, of course, but tend to only look at the headlines there.)

davidjnelson 6y ago

> So let's not lose our excitement and sense of wonder Exactly. It’s wild the potential that many of us hold.