| Here's a different take. I'm a technological optimist as well as an
uncompromising critic. This big-tech cloud nonsense, what I call
Mainframe 2.0, will blow over eventually. It always does. Now you're
40 you'll surely agree the only constant in tech is change. I am also a "Technological Patriot". In other words, I'll fight for
what's mine. Allow me make the point by re-writing what you said in a different
voice; "It's 2 AM and can't sleep. I'm a doctor with 40 years of experience
in oncology. I've saved many lives. We all know medicine constantly
changes and progresses. Lately I'm feeling depressed at the state of
the "industry". Cosmetic surgery, over-prescription of antibiotics and
morphine, privatisation of public hospitals...I don;t know what's
going on anymore. I've been buying power tools and learning how to use
them." You can walk away. Or you can realise that you are important,
valuable and perhaps that you even carry a responsibility to what the
industry means to you. What it means to Google, Microsoft,
Amazon... that isn't your industry, that's theirs. Take it back from them. Or just make yours better and let their
brittle, ephemeral vision evaporate. Become an activist. That doesn't
mean lying in front of a bulldozer. It just means saying what you
really think, and not working on projects that make the world a
shittier place or hand more power to the powerful. Change doesn't have
to be something that happens to you, it can be something you imagine
and create. It might also mean spreading the word and helping your
fellows understand. Now you are a "senior" engineer people will listen
to you. Have you heard of "cloud repatriation" and "degoogling" and the
"on-prem renaissance"? Post 2013, after Snowden, there was a movement called "IntelExit" - to
try to convince people in our intelligence organisations to quit and
disrupt recruiting. I thought this was the worst idea ever. The
people most likely to leave are those with a conscience, those older
and influential, leaving only the worst, pliant and unethical behind. On the contrary - people in a corrupted industry who are disaffected
should be encouraged to stay and fight. One good egg inside enemy
lines is worth ten loud voices shouting from the sidelines. |