[zackmorris]

Ya after graduating from college, I spent 3 years moving furniture from 2001-2003 and consider that the epitome of hell work. In that time, on the paltry wage I received, I could have designed and built a machine to do the work for me. So I spent 3 years being gaslit that I should be grateful for that job and that it was my patriotic duty to be there since someone had to do it. The whole time coming up with an invention a day that would have made the job safer/easier/lucrative. That broke down my psyche to such a degree that I didn't fully recover until going through ego death and healing during the pandemic 20 years later. Now when I hear people say "nobody wants to work anymore", I think of successful people who didn't do what I did, and think to myself "damn straight they don't".

The yakk shaving of today's programming has become hell work. We need a better way, yesterday. But we're all too busy spinning our wheels doing hard work to make rent as the world burns.

Edit: I want to add that I miss the days of my youth and would trade if I could, even taking the good with the bad. Just because something is stupid doesn't mean that we have to let it fill our reality. Turn the guilt/shame into empathy and let go.

[bcrosby95]

I always have to look up yak shaving when I read the term. I find it hilarious that Wikipedia seems to have two definitions for it, which are practically the exact opposite of each other.

So to use this great term to it's fullest extent, I would guess a lot of programmers think they're yak shaving when they're really just yak shaving.

[zackmorris]

Hahaha that's amazing, also I didn't know there were other spellings. I was thinking about yacc as I wrote yakk but I guess it's yak. Funny how associations work. And don't forget bike shedding and cargo culting!