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In my opinion tech used to be fun and we used to create products that actually empower people. Think MySpace, early-days Facebook, Soundcloud, Ableton Live etc.

In my opinion tech used to be fun and we used to create products that actually empower people. Think MySpace, early-days Facebook, Soundcloud, Ableton Live etc. They exist to empower the masses to connect and to create. Today the business model has made every products and contents to be enshittified. We've optimised for the wrong thing and not only the common people hate the tech industry. Even I no longer feels the joy of working in tech.

beached_whale 3mo ago
When it comes to empowering, I am not sure much beats Excel. It lets non techy people codify amazing things and get real work done.
- red-iron-pine 3mo ago
  excel runs the world
FranzFerdiNaN 3mo ago
As always, capitalism can be counted on to destroy anything it touches.
- l337h4x0rz 3mo ago
  At the start founders got the joy from making products that makes people happy. Then it inevitably evolves to chasing the dopamine of achieving larger and larger numbers based on some quantifiable metrics.
- purpleflame1257 3mo ago
  Without the promise of return most promising technology would never have been created.
  - l337h4x0rz 3mo ago
    Agreed. Such is the duality.
ymolodtsov 3mo ago
YouTube empowers millions of creators around the world. It's more about the fact that at a sufficiently large scale any platform faces the same issues. Some creators are terrible without breaking the rules, people argue, etc.
- SecretDreams 3mo ago
  > YouTube empowers millions of creators around the world. Agree. But it empowers them to vie for attention in mostly the worst ways possible and, overwhelmingly, has led to a lot of bad content. There's some gems too. But, by and large, YouTube is less desirable for me to use than it was 10 years ago and I think it's because of the transformation into an industry, rather than an indie platform that also paid out. It feels like it went from a farmer's market with a lot of local farmers selling their goods to shopping at Walmart.
  - red-iron-pine 3mo ago
    empowers them to create slop clickbate shit yeah there are some truly great creators but they're drowned out in the sea of piss that is the generic YT algo AI is now taking those jobs, which I'm not sure if it is better or worse
  - pixl97 3mo ago
    Yep, the creators have to play the algorithm as much as the users get played by the algorithm. If you constantly pump out crap and buy promotions for your videos you can make money, but you put yourself on a treadmill you can't get off of.
- ajrouvoet 3mo ago
  I think that just highlights how “empowerment” through tech is biased towards producers, which makes sense because that aligns with the usual business propositions. For consumers, YT is not empowering. It fulfills a need, well enough to tie them to the platform. But it is obviously not set up to hand them any more power than to serve that goal. You want to shield yourself from wasting time here? Sorry, not sorry, our goal is to steal your attention and entertain you just enough that you keep scrolling.
bitwize 3mo ago
Information systems has always been about empowering business leaders to produce more with less human effort. In that respect, AI for example has been a game changer. Everything else was a sideshow. If you've been leaning hard on programming and lack the people skills to join the business class, that's on you. Things are going to get very hard for you in the near future, if they haven't already. People skills are the new moat.
- l337h4x0rz 3mo ago
  > If you've been leaning hard on programming and lack the people skills to join the business class, that's on you. where did i say that I've been solely leaning hard on programming and not focusing on the people skill?
  - bitwize 3mo ago
    I didn't say you did. But the industry is full of people with technical acumen but little in the way of people skills or a knack for business needs; and in the supposedly halcyon days of the past many of them could grow rich, or at least popular, by developing something cool. These people are going to have a very bad time.

beached_whale 3mo ago

When it comes to empowering, I am not sure much beats Excel. It lets non techy people codify amazing things and get real work done.

red-iron-pine 3mo ago
excel runs the world

FranzFerdiNaN 3mo ago

As always, capitalism can be counted on to destroy anything it touches.

l337h4x0rz 3mo ago
At the start founders got the joy from making products that makes people happy. Then it inevitably evolves to chasing the dopamine of achieving larger and larger numbers based on some quantifiable metrics.
purpleflame1257 3mo ago
Without the promise of return most promising technology would never have been created.
- l337h4x0rz 3mo ago
  Agreed. Such is the duality.

ymolodtsov 3mo ago

YouTube empowers millions of creators around the world. It's more about the fact that at a sufficiently large scale any platform faces the same issues. Some creators are terrible without breaking the rules, people argue, etc.

SecretDreams 3mo ago
> YouTube empowers millions of creators around the world. Agree. But it empowers them to vie for attention in mostly the worst ways possible and, overwhelmingly, has led to a lot of bad content. There's some gems too. But, by and large, YouTube is less desirable for me to use than it was 10 years ago and I think it's because of the transformation into an industry, rather than an indie platform that also paid out. It feels like it went from a farmer's market with a lot of local farmers selling their goods to shopping at Walmart.
- red-iron-pine 3mo ago
  empowers them to create slop clickbate shit yeah there are some truly great creators but they're drowned out in the sea of piss that is the generic YT algo AI is now taking those jobs, which I'm not sure if it is better or worse
- pixl97 3mo ago
  Yep, the creators have to play the algorithm as much as the users get played by the algorithm. If you constantly pump out crap and buy promotions for your videos you can make money, but you put yourself on a treadmill you can't get off of.
ajrouvoet 3mo ago
I think that just highlights how “empowerment” through tech is biased towards producers, which makes sense because that aligns with the usual business propositions. For consumers, YT is not empowering. It fulfills a need, well enough to tie them to the platform. But it is obviously not set up to hand them any more power than to serve that goal. You want to shield yourself from wasting time here? Sorry, not sorry, our goal is to steal your attention and entertain you just enough that you keep scrolling.

bitwize 3mo ago

Information systems has always been about empowering business leaders to produce more with less human effort. In that respect, AI for example has been a game changer. Everything else was a sideshow. If you've been leaning hard on programming and lack the people skills to join the business class, that's on you. Things are going to get very hard for you in the near future, if they haven't already. People skills are the new moat.

l337h4x0rz 3mo ago
> If you've been leaning hard on programming and lack the people skills to join the business class, that's on you. where did i say that I've been solely leaning hard on programming and not focusing on the people skill?
- bitwize 3mo ago
  I didn't say you did. But the industry is full of people with technical acumen but little in the way of people skills or a knack for business needs; and in the supposedly halcyon days of the past many of them could grow rich, or at least popular, by developing something cool. These people are going to have a very bad time.