The whole setup of expectations in tech is contrary to happiness for most people. The ideal of 'building the future' and other silly values such as 'change the

The whole setup of expectations in tech is contrary to happiness for most people. The ideal of 'building the future' and other silly values such as 'change the world' are without content. Build which future? Change the world how? These empty values cannot hide the inherent meaningless of most tech jobs. Moreover, the pace of innovation in tech can burn people out for sure; trying to upskill all the time is no way to live as your brain changes and family life competes for time and attention. But more than that, the constant mini-revolutions in tech shorten history and reveal to anyone who cares to look the graveyard of innovation in miniature. It takes a strong will to consider without flinching that years of effort, success, and failure were transient curiosities to the world. In a tech career you must plan for your own obsolescence unless you move into the 'stable' trajectory of management. That's rough on the ego of any healthy person. That's not even to mention the challenges of soulless bureaucracies that constitute most of the job options these days. The solution is to find sources of power and leverage for oneself. This is admittedly hard to do in management-dominated jobs unless you also have the skills for management. If you have management skills, you can avoid burnout by avoiding notions of 'fixing organizations' or 'improving processes'. These are dead ends. Find opportunities of expanding the things you control and minimizing the things that control you. If you are a technician who is loath to become a manager, understand you also need to maximize your leverage. This comes with control through skill and ownership, not skill alone. People who want to see this advice as cynical are narrow-minded. Nothing about having leverage means you can't help people succeed, or be a team player, or be a 'good' person. In fact, unless you are a sociopath, you must have friends and allies and be committed to their well-being to be happy. What it does mean is you having the power to do all those things and not be helpless. Helplessness is the mind killer. The whole 'beginner mind' business is, paradoxically, a hack to put yourself back into an expansive state of power (the opposite of powerless). But it cannot last. Unless you are a happy hermit you will want to be in the world, with people, with organizations, with politics, with friends, with enemies, with family. Technical competence, among its many uses, is a kind of armor you put on to conquer, but it isn't terribly useful to hold on to what you've gained for long.