4 ms·

Don't like to go against everyone but this not particularly well written. It's a long winding absurdist metaphorical tale, that is really more or less a rant.

Don't like to go against everyone but this not particularly well written. It's a long winding absurdist metaphorical tale, that is really more or less a rant. It's not particularly well grounded. It's a nice piece of personalized fiction, but it's not particularly good writing and nothing approaching what we'd think of as 'journalism'.

Brian_K_White 6mo ago
It's not absurdist. It's shining a light on something that actually exists and is absurd.
- bluegatty 6mo ago
  It only 'shines light' on the mental disposition of the author.
  - stevenlangbroek 6mo ago
    hi, author here. what mental disposition would that be?
    - bluegatty 6mo ago
      Whatever your mental disposition is. The writing is an expression of a state of mind through an absurdist voice, not any kind of reasonable articulation of reality. It's at least a much about the lens as it is the subject. Which is fine, if we ingest it roughly from that purview.
      - stevenlangbroek 6mo ago
        the writing is a tribute to a 2014 similar article, based on my experiences since. it is absolutely a reasonable articulation of reality, although through a sarcastic or satirical lens. you might have different experiences, that doesn't invalidate mine.
      - bluegatty 6mo ago
        your experiences (and probably mine as well) are not a reflection of the general reality of the industry - that's the root of the problem; the writing is a projection, not a reality. The writing is fine (even good) as a personal story, not in the manner in which people here seem to be interpreting it.
        stevenlangbroek 6mo ago
        i dunno. i'm happy to read in the comments here (and elsewhere) that my experience is not unique, many others have similar experiences and are going through the same feelings: grief. i think we're allowed to grieve, don't you?
        senordevnyc 6mo ago
        I hear a lot more rage, envy, cynicism, bitterness, nihilism, and and learned helplessness than grief.
        stevenlangbroek 6mo ago
        it sounds like you should learn a bit more about grief. also, please, for god's sake, read the original. I've linked to it in at the top of the article. As to envious, I'm a Director of Engineering. What exactly do you think is left for me to be envious of? The levels above (VP, SVP, CTO at a non-startup) are outside of my interest.
        senordevnyc 6mo ago
        Chill dude, I was talking about the comments here.
        hsuduebc2 6mo ago
        I do not see that in the article. For me it was irony written well.
        munksbeer 6mo ago
  - Brian_K_White 6mo ago
    I think there is another "mental disposition" in need of some examination.
cube00 6mo ago
I could have done without the five paragraphs of the ship analogy.
nchagnet 6mo ago
Maybe 'journalism' wasn't the best suggestion by the OP but I have to disagree with the rest of your message. It may be a rant, or less pejoratively it may be a cry for help of someone seeing their industry's future, but I can't accept that it's not well written. When is the last time you opened an HN comment section and the main comment was that people enjoyed the writing quality? Maybe it says more about what we usually read as a crowd, but to me this was a breath of fresh air, it was engaging but also quite deep at times. I think the mark of great writing is that it makes an impression on you, on others, in a way casual writing doesn't. At least that's my take on this.
- bluegatty 6mo ago
  I commented only because I didn't think it was particularly well written, and I found the threaD to be full of people commenting on how well written it was. It's highly personalized and interesting, but I wouldn't call it well written. As a personal bit of art - 'thumbs up', but anything else is overstated. But more appropriately, the nihilism on this thread is unhinged. "seeing their industry's future" ??? I'm seeing people empowered to do the most spectacular things that they have ever done in their lives. Software hiring on the aggregate is up, job postings are up, people are doing more, non-developers get to tinker. Speculative money is coming into the industry for people to try wild new things. The implied reality in the story is totally detached from reality. Surely - there is a movement of people who lament a sense of loss of control, but that's normal with change. There are also people in crappy jobs with crappy bosses in crappy companies doing crappy things - but that's not a feature of AI or the industry, in fact, software is a pretty good place, relatively speaking. As I said, this is a reflection of someone's state of mind, mood, being interpreted as some kind of metaphor, but it just doesn't line up with reality in general. A personal reality sure, but that's not a reflection of the community.
  - lelanthran 6mo ago
    > I commented only because I didn't think it was particularly well written, and I found the threaD to be full of people commenting on how well written it was. While "well-written" is subjective, the bar for "well-written" is whether people enjoyed reading it and the author managed to deliver his message. I'm now very curious what bar you personally use for well-written, because it obviously differs from the majority of the people in this thread.
rdslw 6mo ago
Thank you for writing this and your below longer comment. I printed them with OP to remind me any time i’m afraid somebody can criticize my work and that it’s not worth to produce/write/publish. no matter how good, there will always be people like you here, so no need to worry.

Brian_K_White 6mo ago

It's not absurdist. It's shining a light on something that actually exists and is absurd.

bluegatty 6mo ago
It only 'shines light' on the mental disposition of the author.
- stevenlangbroek 6mo ago
  hi, author here. what mental disposition would that be?
  - bluegatty 6mo ago
    Whatever your mental disposition is. The writing is an expression of a state of mind through an absurdist voice, not any kind of reasonable articulation of reality. It's at least a much about the lens as it is the subject. Which is fine, if we ingest it roughly from that purview.
    - stevenlangbroek 6mo ago
      the writing is a tribute to a 2014 similar article, based on my experiences since. it is absolutely a reasonable articulation of reality, although through a sarcastic or satirical lens. you might have different experiences, that doesn't invalidate mine.
    - bluegatty 6mo ago
      your experiences (and probably mine as well) are not a reflection of the general reality of the industry - that's the root of the problem; the writing is a projection, not a reality. The writing is fine (even good) as a personal story, not in the manner in which people here seem to be interpreting it.
      - stevenlangbroek 6mo ago
        i dunno. i'm happy to read in the comments here (and elsewhere) that my experience is not unique, many others have similar experiences and are going through the same feelings: grief. i think we're allowed to grieve, don't you?
        senordevnyc 6mo ago
        I hear a lot more rage, envy, cynicism, bitterness, nihilism, and and learned helplessness than grief.
        stevenlangbroek 6mo ago
        it sounds like you should learn a bit more about grief. also, please, for god's sake, read the original. I've linked to it in at the top of the article. As to envious, I'm a Director of Engineering. What exactly do you think is left for me to be envious of? The levels above (VP, SVP, CTO at a non-startup) are outside of my interest.
        senordevnyc 6mo ago
        Chill dude, I was talking about the comments here.
        hsuduebc2 6mo ago
        I do not see that in the article. For me it was irony written well.
        munksbeer 6mo ago
- Brian_K_White 6mo ago
  I think there is another "mental disposition" in need of some examination.

cube00 6mo ago

I could have done without the five paragraphs of the ship analogy.

nchagnet 6mo ago

Maybe 'journalism' wasn't the best suggestion by the OP but I have to disagree with the rest of your message. It may be a rant, or less pejoratively it may be a cry for help of someone seeing their industry's future, but I can't accept that it's not well written. When is the last time you opened an HN comment section and the main comment was that people enjoyed the writing quality? Maybe it says more about what we usually read as a crowd, but to me this was a breath of fresh air, it was engaging but also quite deep at times. I think the mark of great writing is that it makes an impression on you, on others, in a way casual writing doesn't. At least that's my take on this.

bluegatty 6mo ago
I commented only because I didn't think it was particularly well written, and I found the threaD to be full of people commenting on how well written it was. It's highly personalized and interesting, but I wouldn't call it well written. As a personal bit of art - 'thumbs up', but anything else is overstated. But more appropriately, the nihilism on this thread is unhinged. "seeing their industry's future" ??? I'm seeing people empowered to do the most spectacular things that they have ever done in their lives. Software hiring on the aggregate is up, job postings are up, people are doing more, non-developers get to tinker. Speculative money is coming into the industry for people to try wild new things. The implied reality in the story is totally detached from reality. Surely - there is a movement of people who lament a sense of loss of control, but that's normal with change. There are also people in crappy jobs with crappy bosses in crappy companies doing crappy things - but that's not a feature of AI or the industry, in fact, software is a pretty good place, relatively speaking. As I said, this is a reflection of someone's state of mind, mood, being interpreted as some kind of metaphor, but it just doesn't line up with reality in general. A personal reality sure, but that's not a reflection of the community.
- lelanthran 6mo ago
  > I commented only because I didn't think it was particularly well written, and I found the threaD to be full of people commenting on how well written it was. While "well-written" is subjective, the bar for "well-written" is whether people enjoyed reading it and the author managed to deliver his message. I'm now very curious what bar you personally use for well-written, because it obviously differs from the majority of the people in this thread.

rdslw 6mo ago

Thank you for writing this and your below longer comment. I printed them with OP to remind me any time i’m afraid somebody can criticize my work and that it’s not worth to produce/write/publish. no matter how good, there will always be people like you here, so no need to worry.