[ITB]

Some people on HN were bragging during the pandemic about having multiple jobs and doing the bare minimum to stay employed. And many in HN often talk about the transactional nature of their jobs. In my view, the hacker spirit was about working relentlessly towards a goal. PG would say the same. Whether that ultimate achievement benefits accrues financially just to you, or a larger corpo, is not that relevant. It’s about developing the sort of personality that works hard, always. Making it about who accrues the benefit ends up being an impediment to our own personal growth that comes from hard work. I do think the overall HN vibe has changed, and I do think we have lost something as a community.

[ThalesX]

Funny, I always thought hackers were supposed to work smart and belittle those that "work hard, always", especially those doing it for a "corpo". I don't consider myself an old-time hacker, but this comment makes me laugh at the expected servitude from one such person.

I also don't get where the hacker ethos comes in when you're surrounded by barely competent fools coming out of a 6 month bootcamp and banging a quarter of a million per year, because the suits in this "larger corpo" you believe to be irrelevant are banking on growth metrics to get money in this greater fool world.

[strikelaserclaw]

The hacker spirit is about curiosity and tinkering with stuff to understand how it works, it is about the beauty of imagining and exploring new ideas and building them (whether they be useful or not). The hacker spirit is not about writing crud apps to maximize business ROI for your company, it is not about trying to scrape the bottom of the barrel to find an idea (a social media app for X) to make yourself and your investors rich. As soon as money flowed into tech, everything changed, and PG was most definitely responsible for that change in part.

[iancmceachern]

Yes, the vocal overemployed folks that share their experiences widely say that they work the minimum possible at one or more jobs.

There is a whole other world of folks, folks that want to maximize their contributions to society during their working years, but for whatever reason (company politics and broken bureaucracy typicaly) aren't able to. These folks may be rotting on the vine in their jobs, unable to use their gifts to their fullest. Those folks also fall into this bucket. Not every "overemployed" person puts the minimum in on each of their jobs. Some of them are hiding in plain sight, excelling at one or more jobs. Some of them are tech engineers or executives by day and soccer coaches by night, or volunteer and run soup kitchens, or are active in their religious communities, some of them coach youth technology groups, etc. The folks that are bragging on the internet about putting in the minimum at anything aren't the norm, they're the exception.

Edited - typo

[moistly]

“Contributions to society” in the modern internet world being “targeted ad serving.” Hacker spirit my ass.

[iancmceachern]

I dont follow. I design medical devices, so my world has nothing to do with ads.

[moistly]

Found the guy who, on hearing that humans have two legs, proclaims “But I have only one leg!” Ok, thanks, well done.

[iancmceachern]

What are you saying?

[donmaq]

> the hacker spirit was about working relentlessly towards a goal. PG would say the same. Whether that ultimate achievement benefits accrues financially just to you, or a larger corpo, is not that relevant

This sounds like Boxer in "Animal Farm".

[FooBarBizBazz]

> the hacker spirit was about working relentlessly towards a goal.

Hacking was always more about curiosity than about grinding.