4 ms·

The reality is hard, but the expectation half of this balance is getting exaggerated: > We could be working 15-hour weeks, enjoying our free time, and living l

The reality is hard, but the expectation half of this balance is getting exaggerated: > We could be working 15-hour weeks, enjoying our free time, and living like people of the future. Keynes’ 15-hour workweek essay wasn’t meant to be a rigorous study of how the future was going to look, nor was it representative of a widespread belief. Yet to this day it’s a favorite of journalists looking to anchor economic expectations so far away from reality that no living conditions could sound good by comparison. More practically, I still see a lot of exaggerated expectations in the juniors coming through my employer. Maybe I’m getting old, but it’s becoming frustrating to watch people get six-figure jobs right out college doing remote coding work from the comfort of their homes with ample mentoring, only to complain because Reddit and Blind led them to believe they’d be earning $300K at FAANG jobs while working 20 hours per week. I know that’s not the focus of this article, but I do think it’s representative of how the gap between expectation and reality is being stretched wider and wider as people fall deeper into the internet/social media reality distortion field.

leetcrew 3y ago
are their expectations unreasonably high, or are yours too low? last year a junior on my team worked with a few other juniors and a PM to implement a straightforward automation project. their system saved about $50mm last year, and that number is projected to increase as the company grows. you don't necessarily find such low hanging fruit every year, but would he really be wrong to think his contribution is worth more than $150k?
- applied_heat 3y ago
  Automation of what if you don’t mind sharing some general information? A physical machine? Filling and filing of a form?
  - leetcrew 3y ago
    I'd rather not share too many details, but it's similar to how credit card applications are processed. there's an automated system that can automatically approve some applications, with a manual fallback. the system my junior colleague worked on did not use such sophisticated heuristics, but it still dramatically reduced the amount of cases that require human intervention.
- nerdponx 3y ago
  Maybe at least worth a one-time bonus, or a fast-track to promotion, or even extra vacation time. Our generation gets none of that. You have to change jobs to get a nontrivial raise, no matter how valuable you are.
nerdponx 3y ago
> it’s becoming frustrating to watch people get six-figure jobs right out college doing remote coding work from the comfort of their homes with ample mentoring, only to complain because Reddit and Blind led them to believe they’d be earning $300K at FAANG jobs while working 20 hours per week How many people are actually doing this? These people are a vocal minority. Do not fall into the "millennials are entitled" trap because a few spoiled knuckleheads posted some stupid stuff on Reddit. Look at what's actually happening in the economy and you'll see that the expectations are not any higher than they were for older generations going back at least a few decades, but that there's a growing divide between the millennials who are doing well and those who are not. As one of those who is doing pretty well, I am incensed on behalf of my friends and peers who are doing less well through no fault of their own.
nine_zeros 3y ago
> More practically, I still see a lot of exaggerated expectations in the juniors coming through my employer. Maybe I’m getting old, but it’s becoming frustrating to watch people get six-figure jobs right out college doing remote coding work from the comfort of their homes with ample mentoring, only to complain because Reddit and Blind led them to believe they’d be earning $300K at FAANG jobs while working 20 hours per week This, my friends, is an example of corporate speak. What this statement misses, is that, you NEED $300k salaries to buy houses in places where you get said salaries. What's more? The average new grad is NOT starting at zero. They are starting at negative. So, the $300k salaries are required to get to zero first. By the time these graduates get to zero, house prices have increased substantially. So they will likely need $400k salaries to afford houses by then. What's more, the execs and upper management are making a HELL LOT MORE every passing year, without adequate checks on their productivity. At the same time, the new grad must grind to keep making them richer. The gen Z new grad understands this predatory exploitation very well. That's why people are complaining. Reddit and Blind are merely the channels by which the complaints are happening. Stop this corporate-speak. Let profits got to employees, not just the shareholders passively earning income. The world will be a happier place with this small change.

leetcrew 3y ago

are their expectations unreasonably high, or are yours too low? last year a junior on my team worked with a few other juniors and a PM to implement a straightforward automation project. their system saved about $50mm last year, and that number is projected to increase as the company grows. you don't necessarily find such low hanging fruit every year, but would he really be wrong to think his contribution is worth more than $150k?

applied_heat 3y ago
Automation of what if you don’t mind sharing some general information? A physical machine? Filling and filing of a form?
- leetcrew 3y ago
  I'd rather not share too many details, but it's similar to how credit card applications are processed. there's an automated system that can automatically approve some applications, with a manual fallback. the system my junior colleague worked on did not use such sophisticated heuristics, but it still dramatically reduced the amount of cases that require human intervention.
nerdponx 3y ago
Maybe at least worth a one-time bonus, or a fast-track to promotion, or even extra vacation time. Our generation gets none of that. You have to change jobs to get a nontrivial raise, no matter how valuable you are.

nerdponx 3y ago

> it’s becoming frustrating to watch people get six-figure jobs right out college doing remote coding work from the comfort of their homes with ample mentoring, only to complain because Reddit and Blind led them to believe they’d be earning $300K at FAANG jobs while working 20 hours per week How many people are actually doing this? These people are a vocal minority. Do not fall into the "millennials are entitled" trap because a few spoiled knuckleheads posted some stupid stuff on Reddit. Look at what's actually happening in the economy and you'll see that the expectations are not any higher than they were for older generations going back at least a few decades, but that there's a growing divide between the millennials who are doing well and those who are not. As one of those who is doing pretty well, I am incensed on behalf of my friends and peers who are doing less well through no fault of their own.

nine_zeros 3y ago

> More practically, I still see a lot of exaggerated expectations in the juniors coming through my employer. Maybe I’m getting old, but it’s becoming frustrating to watch people get six-figure jobs right out college doing remote coding work from the comfort of their homes with ample mentoring, only to complain because Reddit and Blind led them to believe they’d be earning $300K at FAANG jobs while working 20 hours per week This, my friends, is an example of corporate speak. What this statement misses, is that, you NEED $300k salaries to buy houses in places where you get said salaries. What's more? The average new grad is NOT starting at zero. They are starting at negative. So, the $300k salaries are required to get to zero first. By the time these graduates get to zero, house prices have increased substantially. So they will likely need $400k salaries to afford houses by then. What's more, the execs and upper management are making a HELL LOT MORE every passing year, without adequate checks on their productivity. At the same time, the new grad must grind to keep making them richer. The gen Z new grad understands this predatory exploitation very well. That's why people are complaining. Reddit and Blind are merely the channels by which the complaints are happening. Stop this corporate-speak. Let profits got to employees, not just the shareholders passively earning income. The world will be a happier place with this small change.