4 ms·

Working in tech is atrocious. Imagine being expected to spend most of your life tied to a desk, carrying out useless meetings, chasing tickets, and long commute

Working in tech is atrocious. Imagine being expected to spend most of your life tied to a desk, carrying out useless meetings, chasing tickets, and long commutes, for pay that you will never actually enjoy as by the time you retire you will be dementia ridden. Worse, working in tech limits your understanding of things around you, essentially making you captive in a job with no life. Imagine as life flashes before your eyes most of the view will be a jira board, and office and petty office politics. Get out while you can.

predictabl3 3y ago
Or you could work 6 years, live within your means and semi-retire for... oh apparently 6 years, and if you can invest worth half a penny and avoid the American consumerism treadmill... A helluva lot longer. Get out while you can, indeed.
helen___keller 3y ago
> by the time you retire you will be dementia ridden Why? > working in tech limits your understanding of things around you, essentially making you captive in a job with no life What?
- k99x55 3y ago
  Why? Sitting in desk for long periods and commuting by car/train in cycling-hostile countries is very bad for your health.
  - pc86 3y ago
    Then imagine how bad doing the same shit for half the money (or less) must be. That's most of the other people in your office. Imagine how bad getting half of that must be but being on your feet all day, or even worse doing real manual labor. That's most of the people outside your office. I'm not saying we can't make things better - we can and should - but the only thing "atrocious" about working in tech is listening to coddled techbros whose first job was an $80k/yr internship talk about how hard it is to be in tech.
    - gumballindie 3y ago
      > working in tech is listening to coddled techbros whose first job was an $80k/yr internship I started well before internships and other worker type of practices creeped into the tech world. Modern tech work is the old day factory work.
- makeitdouble 3y ago
  I don't fully share GP's views, but this took me by surprise. > > by the time you retire you will be dementia ridden > Why? Retirement age is usually set as the age where most people stop being useful to society as active workers. You'll see the argument in abundance in debates on raising the retirement age. You personally might avoid dementia, and you might actually enjoy your retirement time a lot if you had a fortunate life, but by definition most people won't be in the same boat.
  - helen___keller 3y ago
    I thought OP was specifically calling out tech as prone to dementia. Maybe I misunderstood. Every “standard” career track that follows “standard” retirement age should be similar.
    - makeitdouble 3y ago
      Makes sense! Now, our jobs (IT engineers) is often cited to have higher rate of depression and mental disorders [0], and we sure have our fair share of toxic working culture at large scale [1] and smaller scale (startups). A lot of advice is exchanged openly about desk setup, posture and avoiding carpal tunnel. Which is fine. But my best advice to newcomers would be to look hard for non shitty companies that won't let them burn out in 3 years. [0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9664232/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9664232/ [1] https://www.dice.com/career-advice/depression-tech-pros-common-study https://www.dice.com/career-advice/depression-tech-pros-comm...
clement_b 3y ago
Okay but what's the alternative that still involves fiddling with computers?
- gumballindie 3y ago
  Starting you own gig. But everything in tech is saturated and “democratised” to death.
  - systems_glitch 3y ago
    Then you won't have to worry about spending the money -- there won't be any extra! :P
  - zirgs 3y ago
    What gig? Making a game? Becoming a freelancer? That just means working even longer and without holidays and other benefits. My current office job allows me to not think about work after 18:00. And I can simply delete slack from my phone when I go on vacation.
black_13 3y ago
[dead]
scarface_74 3y ago
Yes, us poor tech workers who in almost any major city in the US make at least twice to three times the local median wage
- kcplate 3y ago
  Can you please say this a little louder? Lately it seems much of HN needs to be reminded of it.
qgin 3y ago
Keep your expenses at the level of an average American and you’ll be able to retire by 45 at the absolute latest.
sethd 3y ago
> by the time you retire you will be dementia ridden. This makes no sense as staying cognitively active has been shown to delay dementia: https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/can-physical-or-cognitive-activity-prevent-dementia-202109162595 https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/can-physical-or-cognitiv... Key excerpt: > These studies are important because they show that, despite an equivalent amount of Alzheimer's pathology (measured at autopsy in the first study and by blood in the second), individuals who were more cognitively and physically active were able to delay their clinical Alzheimer's disease diagnosis and cognitive decline. This means that even if you are likely by family history — or bad luck — to develop Alzheimer's disease at some point in your life, you can delay the onset of the disease by staying cognitively and physically active, and you can start at any age. As for physical activity, that's a lifestyle choice and has nothing to do with working in tech. At least for me, working in tech is keeping me cognitively active. It's hard for me to even imagine a scenario where that wouldn't be true in tech.
- Frost1x 3y ago
  >As for physical activity, that's a lifestyle choice and has nothing to do with working in tech. That's not entirely true. A lot of jobs have some degree of physical activity, be it walking around or lifting things. In tech, employers would be happy to strap me to a chair physically if they could, instead they keep me so busy I might as well be strapped to a chair. There's the other extreme with roles that require regular heavy lifting and bending over that leads to long term health problems like back issues, say home electricians crawling around or construction workers. There's a lot of in-between with jobs that have a healthy amount of lifting and moving around. Tech isn't one of those. That means you have to make up for it by exercising on your own time, not during time you're getting paid. Things like extra cardio you might not need otherwise. The benefit is that since you're so sedentary, you get almost full control over the choice and amount of exercise you want. The one downside is its all on your own time. For me I don't mind it, other than the cardio I have to do I wish I didn't.
zirgs 3y ago
Get out and go where exactly?

predictabl3 3y ago

Or you could work 6 years, live within your means and semi-retire for... oh apparently 6 years, and if you can invest worth half a penny and avoid the American consumerism treadmill... A helluva lot longer. Get out while you can, indeed.

helen___keller 3y ago

> by the time you retire you will be dementia ridden Why? > working in tech limits your understanding of things around you, essentially making you captive in a job with no life What?

k99x55 3y ago
Why? Sitting in desk for long periods and commuting by car/train in cycling-hostile countries is very bad for your health.
- pc86 3y ago
  Then imagine how bad doing the same shit for half the money (or less) must be. That's most of the other people in your office. Imagine how bad getting half of that must be but being on your feet all day, or even worse doing real manual labor. That's most of the people outside your office. I'm not saying we can't make things better - we can and should - but the only thing "atrocious" about working in tech is listening to coddled techbros whose first job was an $80k/yr internship talk about how hard it is to be in tech.
  - gumballindie 3y ago
    > working in tech is listening to coddled techbros whose first job was an $80k/yr internship I started well before internships and other worker type of practices creeped into the tech world. Modern tech work is the old day factory work.
makeitdouble 3y ago
I don't fully share GP's views, but this took me by surprise. > > by the time you retire you will be dementia ridden > Why? Retirement age is usually set as the age where most people stop being useful to society as active workers. You'll see the argument in abundance in debates on raising the retirement age. You personally might avoid dementia, and you might actually enjoy your retirement time a lot if you had a fortunate life, but by definition most people won't be in the same boat.
- helen___keller 3y ago
  I thought OP was specifically calling out tech as prone to dementia. Maybe I misunderstood. Every “standard” career track that follows “standard” retirement age should be similar.
  - makeitdouble 3y ago
    Makes sense! Now, our jobs (IT engineers) is often cited to have higher rate of depression and mental disorders [0], and we sure have our fair share of toxic working culture at large scale [1] and smaller scale (startups). A lot of advice is exchanged openly about desk setup, posture and avoiding carpal tunnel. Which is fine. But my best advice to newcomers would be to look hard for non shitty companies that won't let them burn out in 3 years. [0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9664232/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9664232/ [1] https://www.dice.com/career-advice/depression-tech-pros-common-study https://www.dice.com/career-advice/depression-tech-pros-comm...

clement_b 3y ago

Okay but what's the alternative that still involves fiddling with computers?

gumballindie 3y ago
Starting you own gig. But everything in tech is saturated and “democratised” to death.
- systems_glitch 3y ago
  Then you won't have to worry about spending the money -- there won't be any extra! :P
- zirgs 3y ago
  What gig? Making a game? Becoming a freelancer? That just means working even longer and without holidays and other benefits. My current office job allows me to not think about work after 18:00. And I can simply delete slack from my phone when I go on vacation.

black_13 3y ago

[dead]

scarface_74 3y ago

Yes, us poor tech workers who in almost any major city in the US make at least twice to three times the local median wage

kcplate 3y ago
Can you please say this a little louder? Lately it seems much of HN needs to be reminded of it.

qgin 3y ago

Keep your expenses at the level of an average American and you’ll be able to retire by 45 at the absolute latest.

sethd 3y ago

> by the time you retire you will be dementia ridden. This makes no sense as staying cognitively active has been shown to delay dementia: https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/can-physical-or-cognitive-activity-prevent-dementia-202109162595 https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/can-physical-or-cognitiv... Key excerpt: > These studies are important because they show that, despite an equivalent amount of Alzheimer's pathology (measured at autopsy in the first study and by blood in the second), individuals who were more cognitively and physically active were able to delay their clinical Alzheimer's disease diagnosis and cognitive decline. This means that even if you are likely by family history — or bad luck — to develop Alzheimer's disease at some point in your life, you can delay the onset of the disease by staying cognitively and physically active, and you can start at any age. As for physical activity, that's a lifestyle choice and has nothing to do with working in tech. At least for me, working in tech is keeping me cognitively active. It's hard for me to even imagine a scenario where that wouldn't be true in tech.

Frost1x 3y ago
>As for physical activity, that's a lifestyle choice and has nothing to do with working in tech. That's not entirely true. A lot of jobs have some degree of physical activity, be it walking around or lifting things. In tech, employers would be happy to strap me to a chair physically if they could, instead they keep me so busy I might as well be strapped to a chair. There's the other extreme with roles that require regular heavy lifting and bending over that leads to long term health problems like back issues, say home electricians crawling around or construction workers. There's a lot of in-between with jobs that have a healthy amount of lifting and moving around. Tech isn't one of those. That means you have to make up for it by exercising on your own time, not during time you're getting paid. Things like extra cardio you might not need otherwise. The benefit is that since you're so sedentary, you get almost full control over the choice and amount of exercise you want. The one downside is its all on your own time. For me I don't mind it, other than the cardio I have to do I wish I didn't.

zirgs 3y ago

Get out and go where exactly?