| When I was in Kuwait on military deployment last year one of my three roommates was a pediatric cardiologist. I remember hearing a conversation between him and another of my roommates who was disgruntled because they couldn’t get a real job. I butted in saying I have a six figure job in a low cost of living economy and I don’t do shit. I hate it so much they could take my job. I would happily give it to them. They were both envious, but surprisingly the cardiologist voiced the greatest envy. I am home from deployment working at the same employer, one of the biggest and most profitable companies in the country/world. This employer is one of the best employee friendly companies I have ever seen and pays well. I still hate it. It’s not really the employer I hate, but working in corporate software. If I could get any other job at a vaguely similar income level I would take it happily, even if it’s digging ditches or shoveling shit, and this is even though I really enjoy writing software. Corporate software is grossly dysfunctional. * In software I am frequently surrounded by people who are afraid to do their jobs - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22478996 * It could be that I am frequently surrounded by people who lack confidence because they have no idea how to do their job - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22412477 * Or maybe software just allows people to be less than competent because there is not an agreed upon definition of competence. Maybe software is a blue collar industry with an identity disorder - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22391509 * If you needed an example of that identity disorder: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22360326 * It seems other developers have similar observations - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22345702 * Often times it’s easier to do nothing, because when you try people cry - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22194297 * Since there are not industry defined norms and ethics you too can attain a do nothing job recognizing the bias that goes into hiring and manipulating it to your favor - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22164138 * For the longest time I had incorrectly thought the corporate software directly encouraged incompetence in a highly competitive way. A HN comment convinced me it was just mental laziness - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22116659 * Sexism is just a symptom of that bias and mental laziness - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22098101 * If you want examples of mental laziness in practice - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21965539 * Everyone in software is an engineer right? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21905285 * People actually seriously trying to justify being paid for other people doing theirs jobs for them - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21885691 * If you actually do your job you might fail, so better play it safe - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21884188 * Blue collar work work, as evidenced by the expectations - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21739708 * Originality is scary - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21417450 |
I guess you meant greatest but I love the idea of greasy envy. (Apologies for the diversion.)