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TWC is literally what it says on a thin: all workers, no backers, just being honest about our experiences. You can call us entitled, but insofar as we're propa

by rexpop 5y ago

TWC is literally what it says on a thin: all workers, no backers, just being honest about our experiences. You can call us entitled, but insofar as we're propagandists, each individual is only pushing our own personal "narrative." "Building power" is _definitely_ political activism but, again, the way we build power is, primarily, by exposing ourselves to eachother's personal experiences in the tech industry. That knowledge is power. Think of it as a qualitative extension of passing around the salary spreadsheet. Sometimes, we formalize the exchanges through a speed-dating-like "worker's inquiry" where techies pair off and ask eachother basic questions like: 1. How is our work evaluated? 2. How are decisions made in our workplaces? 3. How do our respective bosses motivate us? 4. How does our work fit into the larger economic picture? 5. How is conflict handled at our workplaces? These answers aren't collected, except when they're published in articles like this. It's just... good to know what's going on with eachother. In previous generations, we'd have eachother over for dinner, for poker night, or whatever. We'd join bowling leagues, or the Sierra Club, and people working in the same industry would likely be living in the same towns, and joining the same bowling leagues. These formal, albeit recreational institutions offered workers the opportunity to casually learn about one-another's working and living conditions. Those activities have largely evaporated since the 1950s (in America, at least), atomizing our society, and making us all supremely ignorant of one another (outside the carefully curated social media profiles, and the highly dramatized "reality TV".) I don't really know why a literate person would object to casual, even semi-formal discussion of working conditions. (Of course the TWC self-selects people who are dissatisfied with our conditions, but it's a common truism that work sucks, no.)

AdrianB1 5y ago
Discussions about working conditions are welcome. Make it a cover for something else is not. It would be nice to talk to the generations you mentioned. Not sure you did, but I did a lot. Workplace was a lot worse in the 50s, from working hours to safety. Still, people had liberties, could create friendships and gather and talk openly and free. These days the same people that you the words in the article are the ones killing free speech, forcing agendas and politics in people's lives, atomizing the society and creating friction between races, sexes, classes and everything. With one hand they complain, with the other they cause the situation: there is no honesty there.
- rexpop 5y ago
  > a cover for something else What are you accusing me of? I am literally just a technology professional who likes to compare notes about important aspects of my career with other professionals. It's not a cover for anything else. I am just one individual trying to stay informed and so are the people I have met through these channels. I can't imagine for what "something else" an autobiographical blog post might cover. >It would be nice to talk to the generations you mentioned. Not sure you did I am a third generation software developer, as it happens, so I have more-than-average familiar with the history of the information technology industry (to say nothing of the history I've read). Of course, there is a LOT of ground I haven't covered, and of which I remain ignorant. This is one of the many reasons I like articles such as these, autobiographical works and conversations with other technology workers. > Workplace was a lot worse in the 50s, from working hours to safety Not in every way and while, yes, we've seen improvements—so what? Are we done? There's still much unnecessary suffering. I don't think we're done. Ours is an industry of innovation, of development. Why should employee relations stagnate? Why should working conditions stagnate? And, in some cases, get worse? > Still, people had liberties, could create friendships and gather and talk openly and free. These days These days, we alter our language to evade censorship algorithms from private for-profit corporations who've enclosed the public forum. We create mere token "friendships" in undemocratic virtual reality, or undemocratic workplaces — where a friendship is terminated when employment is terminated: at the whim of a boss. It's the legalistic corralling of human behavior by undemocratic software media that's "killing free speech," and "forcing agendas" written in code. Read some Kafka, for crying out loud. To go online is to "stand before the law" as much as in any analog bureaucracy of which I've read an account — including Solzhenitsyn's! The "atomizing [of] society" comes from a hollowing out of our social institutions by television, by the commercialization of public space and of free time. Read Putnam's "Bowling Alone" for the details. "Friction between races, sexes, classes and everything" has always been here, but now that the internet's letting us peer into one-another's lives, we're noticing it. And we're going to have to resolve it. We can't sweep it under the rug for another generation. > With one hand they complain, with the other they cause the situation Famously: we didn't start the fire. ;) > there is no honesty there I don't know who you're talking about, but probably not the author of this post, and probably not me. Again, I am just a 3rd generation software engineer trying to make it in the industry just like my parents and grandparents, except conditions have changed and what worked for them isn't working any more. Thanks for the opportunity to exchange perspectives.

by rexpop 5y ago

AdrianB1 5y ago

Discussions about working conditions are welcome. Make it a cover for something else is not. It would be nice to talk to the generations you mentioned. Not sure you did, but I did a lot. Workplace was a lot worse in the 50s, from working hours to safety. Still, people had liberties, could create friendships and gather and talk openly and free. These days the same people that you the words in the article are the ones killing free speech, forcing agendas and politics in people's lives, atomizing the society and creating friction between races, sexes, classes and everything. With one hand they complain, with the other they cause the situation: there is no honesty there.

rexpop 5y ago
> a cover for something else What are you accusing me of? I am literally just a technology professional who likes to compare notes about important aspects of my career with other professionals. It's not a cover for anything else. I am just one individual trying to stay informed and so are the people I have met through these channels. I can't imagine for what "something else" an autobiographical blog post might cover. >It would be nice to talk to the generations you mentioned. Not sure you did I am a third generation software developer, as it happens, so I have more-than-average familiar with the history of the information technology industry (to say nothing of the history I've read). Of course, there is a LOT of ground I haven't covered, and of which I remain ignorant. This is one of the many reasons I like articles such as these, autobiographical works and conversations with other technology workers. > Workplace was a lot worse in the 50s, from working hours to safety Not in every way and while, yes, we've seen improvements—so what? Are we done? There's still much unnecessary suffering. I don't think we're done. Ours is an industry of innovation, of development. Why should employee relations stagnate? Why should working conditions stagnate? And, in some cases, get worse? > Still, people had liberties, could create friendships and gather and talk openly and free. These days These days, we alter our language to evade censorship algorithms from private for-profit corporations who've enclosed the public forum. We create mere token "friendships" in undemocratic virtual reality, or undemocratic workplaces — where a friendship is terminated when employment is terminated: at the whim of a boss. It's the legalistic corralling of human behavior by undemocratic software media that's "killing free speech," and "forcing agendas" written in code. Read some Kafka, for crying out loud. To go online is to "stand before the law" as much as in any analog bureaucracy of which I've read an account — including Solzhenitsyn's! The "atomizing [of] society" comes from a hollowing out of our social institutions by television, by the commercialization of public space and of free time. Read Putnam's "Bowling Alone" for the details. "Friction between races, sexes, classes and everything" has always been here, but now that the internet's letting us peer into one-another's lives, we're noticing it. And we're going to have to resolve it. We can't sweep it under the rug for another generation. > With one hand they complain, with the other they cause the situation Famously: we didn't start the fire. ;) > there is no honesty there I don't know who you're talking about, but probably not the author of this post, and probably not me. Again, I am just a 3rd generation software engineer trying to make it in the industry just like my parents and grandparents, except conditions have changed and what worked for them isn't working any more. Thanks for the opportunity to exchange perspectives.