[saalweachter]

Eh, a lot of the work at a FAANG, or a GAMMA, or whatever acronym you want to use for "big stable tech companies", is on products that people use and like and the changes you make matter to people. You may be a cog in a machine, but it's an important machine.

[switchbak]

I'm actively resisting any future incorporation of Google related anything into my life. Doubly so for Facebook and it's evil tendrils. Twitter/LinkedIn and all that other junk don't even deserve consideration.

Are you so sure that work is really important? Most of that big tech stuff is some variation of a low quality attention sink, or similarly some kind of ad-tech that mines the personal information that gets used in said attention sink. [There is real stuff being worked on, but it's not the core focus]

I've worked a couple jobs that have had tangible real-world impact, and that has counted for a ton: keeping search and rescue helicopters in the air, and improving material science. Besides that, I think back to what I've contributed to, and it doesn't amount to much.

At this stage, I'm fairly selfish about work stuff: I need to learn and to get paid. If my work can have meaningful impact that's awesome, but very elusive.

[saalweachter]

> Are you so sure that work is really important?

Like, I understand your position, but the way everyone goes about "de-Googling" or avoiding other big tech products makes it very clear it is useful and important.

Everyone always writes their blog posts about how to switch to alternate services for everything company X does, instead of writing letters to the editor about how notebooks and typewriters, paper letters and day planners, physical photos and public radio, printed maps and encyclopedias are all you need.

Online maps, internet search, email, word processing, spreadsheets, mobile and desktop operating systems, compilers and IDEs, music and video streaming, cloud file and photo storage... people use them. You can have your problems with the way the business is run and the fraction of the internet that is ad supported, but it doesn't change that it feels good to work on a thing that millions of people will use and get value out of and maybe even like.