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I have been coding professionally for over 25 years, and I hate the industry with a passion. I hate the culture of it, the obsession with couching naked capital

I have been coding professionally for over 25 years, and I hate the industry with a passion. I hate the culture of it, the obsession with couching naked capitalist greed in semi-spiritual terms, the inflation of the trivial into the profound ("we're not just building customer relations PaaS, we're changing the way humans fundamentally interact with the universe around them"), I hate the entitlement ("ugh, why are all these poors and their sleeping bags in my way when I try to e-scooter around the city I moved to six months ago?"). I used to be lead dev and CTO of startups, and now I do part-time IT work for a law firm and spend the rest of my time working on my own projects, which are code and music and writing and some inventing and puttering. It's nerve-wracking because I make jack shit and my wife and I live in poverty in England, where my Yankee paycheck doesn't go very far. But when I apply for better gigs and get hit with the code quizzes and the "culture fit" nonsense and the bullshit, I just can't, man. I'm 44 years old, I don't care about having a free IPA fridge in the office and SCRUM and sprints and learning an entirely new framework du jour every six weeks and all that shit. I work for money, period. The stuff I really care about (like climate issues), nobody is gonna hire me to do. And I've spent enough time trying to turn my own projects into actual businesses that I know I'd rather gnaw my own arm off than have to put up with another meeting with some VC asshole where they want to gut everything that's interesting about my ideas and shoehorn in NFTs or some other stupid goddamn thing. You gotta decide whether you value freedom or financial stability. Some people find both, but I think it's rare. Most people just decide what they can live with. Me, I'm still trying to figure it out as the first gray shows up in my beard. Vaya con Dios, man. I don't have any answers for you, but at least know you're not alone.

nickd2001 4y ago
"The stuff I really care about (like climate issues), nobody is gonna hire me to do. " - writing from the UK where its been 37C today and is expected 40C tomorrow, I'd argue, yes people will pay you, and please do this! ;). Seems to me now, anything to do with using less fuel / energy, making heat pumps more efficient, carbon capture etc, is something people will increasingly pay for. The price of heating gas with the war in Ukraine is making alternative energy look much more worthwhile so other tech can be profitable. As for freedom or financial stability, I've achieved a reasonable compromise with a little frugality. Ys I have to work for someone else, however its public sector with a decent mission and nice colleagues. Sure I could get more money elsewhere but not worth it. I'd argue in our industry most people can achieve this eventually (so long as not living in very high house price area of course)

nickd2001 4y ago

"The stuff I really care about (like climate issues), nobody is gonna hire me to do. " - writing from the UK where its been 37C today and is expected 40C tomorrow, I'd argue, yes people will pay you, and please do this! ;). Seems to me now, anything to do with using less fuel / energy, making heat pumps more efficient, carbon capture etc, is something people will increasingly pay for. The price of heating gas with the war in Ukraine is making alternative energy look much more worthwhile so other tech can be profitable. As for freedom or financial stability, I've achieved a reasonable compromise with a little frugality. Ys I have to work for someone else, however its public sector with a decent mission and nice colleagues. Sure I could get more money elsewhere but not worth it. I'd argue in our industry most people can achieve this eventually (so long as not living in very high house price area of course)