[temp99990]

I’ve been fortunate to have landed in a financial position where I’m not scraping by as a millennial but having worked for several years in SF tech one thing that I have felt increasing unease with is the feeling that the companies I’ve worked for might not actually be a net positive for the world. My problem is more existential than economic, which is very much a first world problem but a problem for me nonetheless.

[fancyfish]

Your feelings sound not unlike colleagues working in hedge funds who say it's hard to maintain motivation when your purpose at work is to optimize a percentage risk/return at the end of the quarter. Quarter after quarter. Year after year.

I think this correlates with the idea we expect to derive most of our "purpose" directly from our work [1]. Which certainly doesn't bode well when you are told to go to college for your "passion," find a job doing your "passion," and are now underemployed at a job that primarily just pays the bills.

[1]: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/02/religion-w...

[asdff]

I don't think that's too much to ask that you derive some pleasure from your work. It does take effort, and 8hr is 50% of your waking hours a given day, and if you work for a hedge chances are you are working till at least 6 and weekends during busy season if you are <5 years out of school. That really is a huge chunk of your life and if you think its bullshit, it can really way you down.

[Konnstann]

I was told to major in something marketable, and minor in my passion. It happened that my passion was marketable to some extent, and now I do derive a lot of my purpose from my work. I'm lucky that my job is "making the world a better place" but it isn't incorrect to have that outlook.

[wiglaf1979]

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34964830-automating-ineq...

Same boat. I live in town that shows up in US News best places to live. I make bank doing interesting work. Got a wife and kids that are healthy and no real need for anything.

But....

Seeing the automation efforts we are doing in Retail and Transportation scares the shit out of me. Not that it'll occur but the pace that it'll occur. I really wonder if our economy will handle that many people suddenly being out of a job plus the inevitable concentration of wealth that it'll bring. Every month or so we are pushing a new project through the pipeline that'll have real world impact. Insanely fun to figure out the technical challenges but at what point does the long term social cost get factored into the short term economic gain?

Automating Inequality was a rough read because it paints a bleak picture. But seeing that there are others who are aware and working on this at least helped me to realize I wasn't alone with my concerns. Still unsure of how to actively help. Throwing money at EFF only gets so far at fixing things. Debating about taking a pay cut and finding a job more aligned with my principles. Had fun as a family working through a skill checklist for homesteading to help ground my kids in the non-tech world. (Bee hive was a resounding win. Kids were aghast at composting for the garden.)

So no real info to weigh in beyond you ain't alone in that worry or situation.

[tzakrajs]

Our minds aren't really that special as engineers, we were typically shown a path to engineering from our parents or environment that lead us here. It was a real privilege to receive that pathway. That isn't so say there wasn't hard work, but the path provided ample motivation. Not so for many of our contemporaries who have the same very capable bundles of neurons in their brains but no pathway to elicit motivation to do the things we do.

There are dozens of homeless people who live in encampments right outside my window. I hate this place sometimes.

[asdff]

It's pretty humbling to be constantly reminded of how lucky your circumstances really are. I bet there's a couple of those homeless people who could have been in your very shoes had a coin flipped differently.