5 ms·

Maybe. Probably. It's hard for me to perceive sarcasm these days. I'm becoming just like the neoliberals I used to criticize who gets triggered at the slightest

Maybe. Probably. It's hard for me to perceive sarcasm these days. I'm becoming just like the neoliberals I used to criticize who gets triggered at the slightest thing haha. That said, I do think a lot of cynical engineers have a "Rat race" worldview and not the "Hamster wheel" one. From my perspective, it's like if someone made a joke about genocide. My sarcasm detector switches off. This topic and this game is traumatic to me. Also, the amount of money which is needed to retire in the game is huge! $1.7 million! I'm not even expecting to reach that at retirement. The fact that someone believes they can get this in a few years of grinding reveals a very cushy worldview... What I would do for that kind of money... I've been grinding like insane, nights and weekends for almost 15 years and my net worth is like $200k, 30% of it illiquid in a retirement fund. I never got a bonus, in spite of being called "the best engineer at the company" to my face by the company founder. After asking for a raise, they offered a 2% salary increase... This was a cryptocurrency company with a lot of money to spare.

windward 3mo ago
Your life would be more cushy if you didn't hang around in suboptimal jobs.
- jongjong 3mo ago
  Why do you assume I have access to such opportunities? This whole argument rests on the idea that everyone has equal access to opportunities. Which is incorrect. Firstly, it's trivial to prove that the hiring process is broken and discriminatory. Secondly, history is not an indication of future performance. Just because it's been working out for big tech over the past few decades, doesn't mean this will continue. Especially when you look at the socio-political environment today, the risk profile is incredibly high... For a vanishing return. For me to become a millionaire through big tech, starting from today, the previous batch of tech bros would have to be pushed into the billionaire bracket... That's how much the stock would have to go up from where it is now to make me a millionaire. There would be hundreds of thousands of big-tech ex-employee billionaires? Made billionaire purely because they were lucky enough to be offered an opportunity at the right company at the right time. That's just not fair, nor realistic. So getting access to an opportunity to take a tech test from a big tech company is just the first hurdle. And the tech test isn't even a good measure of skill! Should a rank-and-file mediocre developer who joined Microsoft 10 years ago who has since been fired due to poor performance become a billionaire passive Microsoft shareholder? The amount of corruption which would have to take place to make this happen is unfathomable. They'd need to release all the criminals from US prisons and hire them to work as gate keepers for big tech.
  - windward 3mo ago
    You live in a better paying country than me. You work harder than me. You've worked for longer than me. You've saved less than me. Suboptimal use of the opportunities available to you is the kinder option here.

windward 3mo ago

Your life would be more cushy if you didn't hang around in suboptimal jobs.

jongjong 3mo ago
Why do you assume I have access to such opportunities? This whole argument rests on the idea that everyone has equal access to opportunities. Which is incorrect. Firstly, it's trivial to prove that the hiring process is broken and discriminatory. Secondly, history is not an indication of future performance. Just because it's been working out for big tech over the past few decades, doesn't mean this will continue. Especially when you look at the socio-political environment today, the risk profile is incredibly high... For a vanishing return. For me to become a millionaire through big tech, starting from today, the previous batch of tech bros would have to be pushed into the billionaire bracket... That's how much the stock would have to go up from where it is now to make me a millionaire. There would be hundreds of thousands of big-tech ex-employee billionaires? Made billionaire purely because they were lucky enough to be offered an opportunity at the right company at the right time. That's just not fair, nor realistic. So getting access to an opportunity to take a tech test from a big tech company is just the first hurdle. And the tech test isn't even a good measure of skill! Should a rank-and-file mediocre developer who joined Microsoft 10 years ago who has since been fired due to poor performance become a billionaire passive Microsoft shareholder? The amount of corruption which would have to take place to make this happen is unfathomable. They'd need to release all the criminals from US prisons and hire them to work as gate keepers for big tech.
- windward 3mo ago
  You live in a better paying country than me. You work harder than me. You've worked for longer than me. You've saved less than me. Suboptimal use of the opportunities available to you is the kinder option here.