[websites2023]

Off topic but your response is spot on, and a key justification for why I want out. I want out of Silicon Valley. I want out of tech, out of screens, out of all of it.

I’m using COVID as an excuse to move away and start drawing down my involvement with all of it. I spent years trying to work my way into one of the few tech companies I considered at least nominally not trying to ruin the world for money but that’s not even enough.

We have built a dystopia, and short of finding a way to dismantle it that still lets me pay the rent and eat and not resign myself to a cat food retirement, I just want to get as far away from it as possible.

[nicoffeine]

The endless treadmill of tech fads is brutal, and I agree that the current state of affairs has a lot of dystopian elements. Remember that there are lots of SMBs who need talented IT, and some startups that are trying to tackle real issues like hunger and climate change.

If you're set on getting out of the SV bubble, look around for needs in regenerative agriculture, or even carbon offset projects that need real estate to operate. If I had a different family situation, that's what I would be doing.

[wutbrodo]

Or, spare yourself the histrionics and work for one of the hundreds of SV companies that don't build megascale ad-supported services?

[websites2023]

I already do, but I can’t shake the feeling that it’s all bound up together and there are no choices I could make that mitigate the deleterious effects the industry has.

You’re free to label that histrionics, but I’m the one who has to face myself in the mirror.

[srswtf123]

For what it’s worth, I made the same decision several years ago. I am 110% happier! I can look at myself in the mirror and feel good again.

For me it wasn’t just tech though; its all of corporate America. I just can’t take the lack of humanity, empathy, kindness. Nor can I take the useless work, endless, pointless posturing, forced “fun” activities, and the general dishonesty.

I weep for what we’ve done and the awful future that awaits. All this is probably histrionic too. But like you, I’d rather be able to look myself in the mirror, and get a good nights sleep.

[WesolyKubeczek]

Keeps me wondering what you're gonna do for a living with a nickname like that.