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by invsblduck 2239 days ago

i'm about 40 yrs old - been working in tech (with linux) since the late 90s. gave my life to it, lost my physical and mental health; burned out numerous times. can't stand this industry anymore.

moral of the story: 99% of people still don't understand the nature of software. very few people--like rich hickey (clojure), or fpb (mythical man-month)--seem to get it. tech is mainstream and most people are missing historical context and experience.

(the goals of capitalism are typically at odds with building systems of the highest quality--and understandably so.)

the only creative spark in computing i have to sooth myself anymore is reading lisp or unix books from the 80s and 90s, because the content is so thoughtful (given the culture and smaller community at the time). the internet has become ruined by advertising and bloatware, and the culture has largely been ruined by bad habits and misunderstanding, imo.

5 comments

mark_l_watson 2239 days ago

Thanks for that. I tend to idealize my career but in reading your comment I stopped to think of both the good and bad parts of my working life, from the sublime to the boring and odd job tasks. Working life really is a mixed bag.

You mentioned Lisp. I just retired last year, and just turned 69. I only use Lisp now (three planned projects for the macOS store, one almost done, and all my writing is concentrated on Lisp) and am dropping other programming languages that I used to also love, including Lisp languages that are not Common Lisp.

I also agree that the Internet is not what it could be but I still find value by finding a few people who I really enjoy, follow their writing and podcasts, and ignore 99.999% of everything else. I also find that reading books is much more rewarding that browsing the web.

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dkdk8283 2239 days ago

Sounds exactly like me. My burnout has gotten worse now that tech is mainstream. My current gig is more like a regular business that just happens to develop software. Most of the staff are social first technology second. I don’t fit in at all, and to be frank it depresses me. Not sure what I’m going to do in the future.

I can’t shoot the shit and talk strace or gdb with any of them.

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invsblduck 2239 days ago

After reading your reply to OP below, I agree we have a super similar path. Especially the beginning:

> My first burnout was pure depletion of energy. I was young, passionate, and believed in doing the best work I could. I was addicted to work and pushed myself to deliver. I did, and built a career. I left after almost a decade at that company [...]

(However, I never found a way to leave "Tech" for another profession--especially once I achieved a certain salary range, and others depended on me.)

> I can’t shoot the shit and talk strace or gdb with any of them.

Know the feeling exactly...

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HighPlainsDrftr 2239 days ago

> moral of the story: 99% of people still don't understand the > nature of software. very few people--like rich hickey ? ? (clojure), or fpb (mythical man-month)--seem to get it. tech >?is mainstream and most people are missing historical context >and experience.

This is it. As engineers, we want to build the best can. As managers of a business, we want to product the most profit we can. As marketers, the more income that comes in, the better off we are.

Chose 2 of the 3. Marketing almost always wins one of those slots.

If someone could produce a solid infrastructure to get rid of ads and all that nonsense, but still get a product out in front of everyone, I think that might be the holy grail.

(I hope that if you figure this out - you might give me a .5% royalty) when your successful.

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anthk 2239 days ago

Get collapseos, it has a bundled z80 emulator and some shell. Learn forth and continue doing Z80 coding. It's really fun.

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invsblduck 2239 days ago

Thanks, i'll give it a try. :)

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anthk 2239 days ago

Also remember gopher is still alive. My gopher list:

1436.ninja

1436.ninja/1/Port70News