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I do feel this trend in my life. I have a job which I'm grateful for but nothing feels satisfying anymore, and I feel like it is much harder to connect to peopl

I do feel this trend in my life. I have a job which I'm grateful for but nothing feels satisfying anymore, and I feel like it is much harder to connect to people or form deep relationships, especially in this field, unless you already have a clique in your workplace. On top of that, AI is generally a demotivating entity to the majority of people. Despite all the hype of Altman and whonots, I feel like people just don't have a positive view of the future of their careers due to AI. And once you lose hope it's just downhill from there. Also I feel like society still hasn't recovered fully from COVID, so many third places gone, restraunts closed, etc. It's getting there but people are isolating more and more. I'm in my late 20s and I just haven't felt like my social life is even half of what it used to be before COVID.

pb7 6mo ago
At some point you have to take some responsibility for your life. I can't relate to any of the things you mentioned. I have deep relationships with lots of people, across entirely different types of groups. We see each other regularly (weekly, sometimes more), we do fun things together, we go to events and plan trips, we always have things to talk about, we have hobbies and communities to connect with even more people. We make new connections and friends constantly. You probably prioritized the wrong things at some point in your life, like the values you hold or the place you choose to live in. You can still make changes to those choices. My life and the life of everyone I know is immeasurably better since COVID. That's not meant to be a brag but I hope it serves as a wake up call that your experience is not the only one.
- ewjt 6mo ago
  Both can be true— We need to be the change we want to see. There are significant structural issues in society that present headwinds for average people trying to build a fulfilling life.
- jbxntuehineoh 6mo ago
  Great, you figured it out, this society-wide collapse in happiness was caused by people simply deciding to be sad, simultaneously. No external factors were involved. Everyone just decided they didn't want to be happy anymore.
  - deleted 6mo ago
    [deleted]
  - nozzlegear 6mo ago
    > Everyone just decided they didn't want to be happy anymore. My id wants to be happy, but my collective unconscious wants to doomscroll.
- eBombzor 6mo ago
  Yes, you are absolutely right in the sense that I did not actively consider human connection to be a priority in my early years. I'm working on that now. And I as well know a lot of people who's lives got better after COVID. But I guess what I'm trying to say is that even if I wasn't that type of person, it was still easy to make friends across places, but the general trend nowadays is that there a lot more barriers to break into social circles, and a lot of social circles are not as easily accessible. And maybe it's also because I live in Seattle.
  - pb7 6mo ago
    >And maybe it's also because I live in Seattle. Oof, yeah, that definitely doesn't help. I agree that it's tough to break into social circles not only as adults but also younger people, because everyone spends so much of their time doomscrolling on the internet filling their heads with negative emotions from things they can (and at no other point in time could) control. Hindsight is 20/20 for some but that's why I prioritize my friends and my community and I don't make plans to move away to have a giant empty house in the middle of nowhere, and I don't make plans to take on a job that will have me drained and unavailable, etc. I recognize the massive positive influence they have on me (and I on them) and I take great steps to nurture it, no different than my family or my career or anything else of material importance to my way of life. In any case, you need to invest time and mental and emotional energy into it, now more than ever. People yearn for community but no one wants to work for it. Be available, be present, reach out, make plans, forgive, be adaptable, be fun.
burningChrome 6mo ago
I sense your lack of hope and see it in a lot of younger people these days. I grew up in the 80's. College in the late 90's. Start of career in the mid aughts. Went through two dot com busts, and have seen a lot of shit. The one thing that my generation (Gen X) seemed to have was always some optimism for the future. Some hope that as bad as it is now? It will eventually get better. The economy will recover, tech jobs will come back, new companies will start up, things will get back to normal. There seemed to be so much open road with our generation. We knew we were at the forefront of something really special. The road to being successful was pretty standard. Go to college, get a degree, start a career making 40-50K. Get married, buy a house, have kids, live happily ever after. That seems to have dissipated with Millennials and has gotten worse with Gen Z. Even college for Gen Z is like, "I don't know, is it really worth it any more?" How do you pick a career in something that may or may not exist in a few years because of AI? It just seems like we were the last generation that really had so much hope (regardless of which party was in the White House or controlled congress) and it seems that kind on relentless optimism for the future has dimmed immensely over the past few years. I'm grateful for the time I grew up in. I'm not sure I would be able to handle the amount of pressure and stress that young people have to deal with these days.
- rconti 6mo ago
  Huh. I'm a successful person in my mid 40s, just a year or two behind you. Objectively things are going great. However, my perspective has gotten a lot worse the last couple of years. Enshittification, corporate consolidation, tech market, AI, etc. I didn't once worry during the dot com bust, or the financial crisis, or the outsourcing boom. It feels VERY different this time. Basically it feels like tech was the last place where you could do well and outrun the long term real wage stagnation the country's faced since the 70s. And it's not anymore.
  - eloisant 6mo ago
    It's really early to see if the current layoff wave is just a lean time like the dotcom burst or 2008, or if it's really they end of tech as a low unemployment, high paying profession. Yes AI can change the situation durably, but it's not the first time developers get a new tool that gets them more productive. We've seen that with compilers, IDE, frameworks, etc.
pelasaco 6mo ago
> I do feel this trend in my life. I have a job which I'm grateful for but nothing feels satisfying anymore, and I feel like it is much harder to connect to people or form deep relationships, especially in this field, unless you already have a clique in your workplace. do you have kids? Family? That is the ancient receipt for a great and happy life.
- cyclopeanutopia 6mo ago
  Yeah, it was, but now we have AI and there is no future for our kids, so it's even worse.
  - NoGravitas 6mo ago
    Yeah. I had kids, but the fact that I can't see a future for them, but have to live as if I do, is crushing.
  - pelasaco 6mo ago
    > Yeah, it was, but now we have AI and there is no future for our kids, so it's even worse. what? We went through so many bad periods in our history..is it sarcasm?
    - cyclopeanutopia 6mo ago
      No sarcasm, your reply is insulting. But stupidity, blindness and greed-driven techno-optimism displayed on this site got to a vomit-inducing level recently.
      - r_lee 6mo ago
        agreed. I'm wondering how on earth are people supposed to provide for a family these days? the techno optimism has been absolutely insane. celebrating that people won't have jobs anymore, that robots will be doing everything and that how the human species is just a stepping stone or something and if you resist you're a "specist" (famously said by Larry Page)
globular-toast 6mo ago
> On top of that, AI is generally a demotivating entity to the majority of people. I agree. I think we should just stop.
- RationPhantoms 6mo ago
  I don't think the majority of people have given it a passing thought to be fair. For folks that grew up with the advent of being the "designated family googler" (and rested the success of their careers on such), it is an incredible time for information. You're telling me there is a faceless, non-judgemental, never exhausted tutor just sitting there waiting for my curiosity to strike up a conversation? How absolutely fantastic. We're spoiled with information.
- dlivingston 6mo ago
  The only way out is through. This transition sucks but (1) is necessary (and INEVITABLE) to become an advanced civilization, and (2) the cat is out of the bag, it is not going back in, and burying one's head in the sand is no solution at all.
  - Der_Einzige 6mo ago
    The cat can be put back into the bag. Go see the plot for “the creator” or “dune” to see what doing that looks like.
    - dlivingston 6mo ago
      I've seen the latter but I'm not sure I get the relevancy.
      - globular-toast 5mo ago
        It's barely mentioned in the film iirc. The book is obviously far better. He's referring to the Butlerian Jihad.
mips_avatar 6mo ago
I think if modern LLMs were invented in the mid 2010s it would have been promoted in more positive ways, but because everyone is afraid for their economic security saying scary things gets more of a response. I think it's kind of gross that it's a race to scare ordinary people and especially Dario Amodei should feel kind of ashamed of himself.
pizzafeelsright 6mo ago
Children would change that, instantly. I wasn't a father until late in life and then all of a sudden, everything is easy. The moment I wake up to the moment I go to sleep, every moment has meaning and purpose. Nothing, no meal, no evening, no dollar is wasted. As my children grow - the only question is how long do I have until I have grandchildren. After that - how long until I no longer have skin in the game? I do full time AI stuff and it is meaningless other than the provision it provides. I would not recommend avoiding the biological imperative. Reproduce. Everything else after that moment is clarity.
- deleted 6mo ago
  [deleted]
- alex43578 6mo ago
  What a testimony to the tricks your brain chemistry plays on you.
- NoGravitas 6mo ago
  > I would not recommend avoiding the biological imperative. Reproduce. Everything else after that moment is clarity. I'd like to point out that experience is far from universal. Parenting beyond "feed and shelter them" is a minefield of ambiguity and conflicting evidence.
- eBombzor 6mo ago
  I'm not even on step 0 for that. Dating is f*ked for ordinary young men in 2026

pb7 6mo ago

At some point you have to take some responsibility for your life. I can't relate to any of the things you mentioned. I have deep relationships with lots of people, across entirely different types of groups. We see each other regularly (weekly, sometimes more), we do fun things together, we go to events and plan trips, we always have things to talk about, we have hobbies and communities to connect with even more people. We make new connections and friends constantly. You probably prioritized the wrong things at some point in your life, like the values you hold or the place you choose to live in. You can still make changes to those choices. My life and the life of everyone I know is immeasurably better since COVID. That's not meant to be a brag but I hope it serves as a wake up call that your experience is not the only one.

ewjt 6mo ago
Both can be true— We need to be the change we want to see. There are significant structural issues in society that present headwinds for average people trying to build a fulfilling life.
jbxntuehineoh 6mo ago
Great, you figured it out, this society-wide collapse in happiness was caused by people simply deciding to be sad, simultaneously. No external factors were involved. Everyone just decided they didn't want to be happy anymore.
- deleted 6mo ago
  [deleted]
- nozzlegear 6mo ago
  > Everyone just decided they didn't want to be happy anymore. My id wants to be happy, but my collective unconscious wants to doomscroll.
eBombzor 6mo ago
Yes, you are absolutely right in the sense that I did not actively consider human connection to be a priority in my early years. I'm working on that now. And I as well know a lot of people who's lives got better after COVID. But I guess what I'm trying to say is that even if I wasn't that type of person, it was still easy to make friends across places, but the general trend nowadays is that there a lot more barriers to break into social circles, and a lot of social circles are not as easily accessible. And maybe it's also because I live in Seattle.
- pb7 6mo ago
  >And maybe it's also because I live in Seattle. Oof, yeah, that definitely doesn't help. I agree that it's tough to break into social circles not only as adults but also younger people, because everyone spends so much of their time doomscrolling on the internet filling their heads with negative emotions from things they can (and at no other point in time could) control. Hindsight is 20/20 for some but that's why I prioritize my friends and my community and I don't make plans to move away to have a giant empty house in the middle of nowhere, and I don't make plans to take on a job that will have me drained and unavailable, etc. I recognize the massive positive influence they have on me (and I on them) and I take great steps to nurture it, no different than my family or my career or anything else of material importance to my way of life. In any case, you need to invest time and mental and emotional energy into it, now more than ever. People yearn for community but no one wants to work for it. Be available, be present, reach out, make plans, forgive, be adaptable, be fun.

burningChrome 6mo ago

I sense your lack of hope and see it in a lot of younger people these days. I grew up in the 80's. College in the late 90's. Start of career in the mid aughts. Went through two dot com busts, and have seen a lot of shit. The one thing that my generation (Gen X) seemed to have was always some optimism for the future. Some hope that as bad as it is now? It will eventually get better. The economy will recover, tech jobs will come back, new companies will start up, things will get back to normal. There seemed to be so much open road with our generation. We knew we were at the forefront of something really special. The road to being successful was pretty standard. Go to college, get a degree, start a career making 40-50K. Get married, buy a house, have kids, live happily ever after. That seems to have dissipated with Millennials and has gotten worse with Gen Z. Even college for Gen Z is like, "I don't know, is it really worth it any more?" How do you pick a career in something that may or may not exist in a few years because of AI? It just seems like we were the last generation that really had so much hope (regardless of which party was in the White House or controlled congress) and it seems that kind on relentless optimism for the future has dimmed immensely over the past few years. I'm grateful for the time I grew up in. I'm not sure I would be able to handle the amount of pressure and stress that young people have to deal with these days.

rconti 6mo ago
Huh. I'm a successful person in my mid 40s, just a year or two behind you. Objectively things are going great. However, my perspective has gotten a lot worse the last couple of years. Enshittification, corporate consolidation, tech market, AI, etc. I didn't once worry during the dot com bust, or the financial crisis, or the outsourcing boom. It feels VERY different this time. Basically it feels like tech was the last place where you could do well and outrun the long term real wage stagnation the country's faced since the 70s. And it's not anymore.
- eloisant 6mo ago
  It's really early to see if the current layoff wave is just a lean time like the dotcom burst or 2008, or if it's really they end of tech as a low unemployment, high paying profession. Yes AI can change the situation durably, but it's not the first time developers get a new tool that gets them more productive. We've seen that with compilers, IDE, frameworks, etc.

pelasaco 6mo ago

> I do feel this trend in my life. I have a job which I'm grateful for but nothing feels satisfying anymore, and I feel like it is much harder to connect to people or form deep relationships, especially in this field, unless you already have a clique in your workplace. do you have kids? Family? That is the ancient receipt for a great and happy life.

cyclopeanutopia 6mo ago
Yeah, it was, but now we have AI and there is no future for our kids, so it's even worse.
- NoGravitas 6mo ago
  Yeah. I had kids, but the fact that I can't see a future for them, but have to live as if I do, is crushing.
- pelasaco 6mo ago
  > Yeah, it was, but now we have AI and there is no future for our kids, so it's even worse. what? We went through so many bad periods in our history..is it sarcasm?
  - cyclopeanutopia 6mo ago
    No sarcasm, your reply is insulting. But stupidity, blindness and greed-driven techno-optimism displayed on this site got to a vomit-inducing level recently.
    - r_lee 6mo ago
      agreed. I'm wondering how on earth are people supposed to provide for a family these days? the techno optimism has been absolutely insane. celebrating that people won't have jobs anymore, that robots will be doing everything and that how the human species is just a stepping stone or something and if you resist you're a "specist" (famously said by Larry Page)

globular-toast 6mo ago

> On top of that, AI is generally a demotivating entity to the majority of people. I agree. I think we should just stop.

RationPhantoms 6mo ago
I don't think the majority of people have given it a passing thought to be fair. For folks that grew up with the advent of being the "designated family googler" (and rested the success of their careers on such), it is an incredible time for information. You're telling me there is a faceless, non-judgemental, never exhausted tutor just sitting there waiting for my curiosity to strike up a conversation? How absolutely fantastic. We're spoiled with information.
dlivingston 6mo ago
The only way out is through. This transition sucks but (1) is necessary (and INEVITABLE) to become an advanced civilization, and (2) the cat is out of the bag, it is not going back in, and burying one's head in the sand is no solution at all.
- Der_Einzige 6mo ago
  The cat can be put back into the bag. Go see the plot for “the creator” or “dune” to see what doing that looks like.
  - dlivingston 6mo ago
    I've seen the latter but I'm not sure I get the relevancy.
    - globular-toast 5mo ago
      It's barely mentioned in the film iirc. The book is obviously far better. He's referring to the Butlerian Jihad.

mips_avatar 6mo ago

I think if modern LLMs were invented in the mid 2010s it would have been promoted in more positive ways, but because everyone is afraid for their economic security saying scary things gets more of a response. I think it's kind of gross that it's a race to scare ordinary people and especially Dario Amodei should feel kind of ashamed of himself.

pizzafeelsright 6mo ago

Children would change that, instantly. I wasn't a father until late in life and then all of a sudden, everything is easy. The moment I wake up to the moment I go to sleep, every moment has meaning and purpose. Nothing, no meal, no evening, no dollar is wasted. As my children grow - the only question is how long do I have until I have grandchildren. After that - how long until I no longer have skin in the game? I do full time AI stuff and it is meaningless other than the provision it provides. I would not recommend avoiding the biological imperative. Reproduce. Everything else after that moment is clarity.

deleted 6mo ago
[deleted]
alex43578 6mo ago
What a testimony to the tricks your brain chemistry plays on you.
NoGravitas 6mo ago
> I would not recommend avoiding the biological imperative. Reproduce. Everything else after that moment is clarity. I'd like to point out that experience is far from universal. Parenting beyond "feed and shelter them" is a minefield of ambiguity and conflicting evidence.
eBombzor 6mo ago
I'm not even on step 0 for that. Dating is f*ked for ordinary young men in 2026