[cyberdrunk]

I suspect that all sufficiently complex fields are extremely susceptible to fads, egos and cliques. It's the worst in humanities, since they deal with hopelessly complex subjects (i.e. humans), but even science can commonly become like this. Heck, even coding is like this, as we've probably all experienced in our jobs. With this in mind, my plan to retain my integrity is to leave fields with an intellectual component and live simply on much less.

[csa]

> I suspect that all sufficiently complex fields are extremely susceptible to fads, egos and cliques.

I completely agree.

> With this in mind, my plan to retain my integrity is to leave fields with an intellectual component

That’s an interesting solution. Given my personality, I’m not sure it’s one I could do.

What I have done is transition to an area in which my skills can be used to make money for me and others. It’s interesting that when money is involved, there are people who are willing to support less-than-trendy ideas.

[cyberdrunk]

> What I have done is transition to an area in which my skills can be used to make money for me and others.

Money is both good and bad. Thee bad part is that it attracts a ton of unsavory personalities, who will do anything to get ahead. In coding, it results in endless self-promoting, pushing unnecessary (or downright harmful) new tech and project ideas in order to gain a promotion, one-upmanship in code reviews etc. All that bullshit gets old fairly quickly.

The reality is that, in a complex environment, it's much easier to make money by doing some work and heavily manipulating people rather than doing good work and no manipulation. Hence, I want to exit complex environments as quickly as possible, which means distancing myself from society and modern economy as much as possible. It will probably mean living on $500-$700 a month, but hopefully the peace gained will be worth it. (Currently, it's still all in a fantasy stage, as I need to accumulate some more money via coding job to make the jump).