[thehappyfellow]

Author here. I did not expect to see my post on HN!

It was a rant, I was venting, it’s not supposed to be an objective statement about the state of tech. It’s shouting into the void about the things I find unfair and unbearable, I don’t think it’s a great HN material.

I made up parts of the story because it didn’t happen to me and I didn’t want to share details of somebody else’s situation.

[int_19h]

FWIW I think it captures the sentiment many users have towards software today fairly accurately, and every software engineer who has even a modicum of pride in their trade really ought to pay attention.

One thing I'd like to point out, though, is that this kind of stuff isn't really about micro-optimizations. Most software in the "good old days" wasn't really micro-optimized either. No, what this is about is bloat. Layers upon layers of abstractions that, in most cases, amount to rearranging the pieces in the way the author deemed most aesthetically pleasing. When I look at call stacks while debugging most modern software, I can't help but feel that it spends most of its time calling functions that call functions etc, 20-30 levels deep. Most data flow isn't from component to component, but within the component between those layers. And it all adds up.

[g-b-r]

Well, it actually did happen to me (precisely to pay the rent), and I burst into applause after reading your blog post

[thehappyfellow]

It really makes me happy to know that my writing struck a chord for at least one person - thank you!

[dangus]

I guess “unfair and unbearable” is paying your rent at the last minute after business hours on a phone with 2012 specs. Wouldn’t want to plan ahead and pay on time or pay with a check or pay with autopay or pay with a laptop or pay with a computer at the library for free.

You say it’s not an objective statement about the state of tech and I would agree: it’s highly subjective, a literally made up story, and a dumbass opinion.

Getting a phone capable of doing an online bill pay is trivial. Literally free with a discount shit cheap phone plan.

The victim mentality will destroy you if you let it take over.

[pjc50]

> Getting a phone capable of doing an online bill pay is trivial. Literally free with a discount shit cheap phone plan.

No matter how cheap your phone is, if you're poor someone will always judge you because your phone is too expensive.

"Why do you have a more recent phone that 2012 if you're on benefits?"

[dangus]

I don’t think this has been true in the last 5-8 years where phones are incrementally different and essentially look identical.

I saw an ad yesterday for a free iPhone 13 with a discount carrier and that phone is almost indistinguishable from the current iPhone on sale.

[kugurerdem]

The thing is, until he said it was a made-up story, I thought it was real. This shows that things like that started to become the real norm.

I also don't think the author is in a victim mentality, it is more like a reminder to other developers that they can do so much better.

[dangus]

Just because the story is believable doesn’t mean that the people who are in the story are without responsibility or fault.

When you get into a lease agreement you should know how to pay going into it. If your landlord doesn’t take a form of payment you can handle you don’t sign the lease in the first place. That’s your life responsibility as a functional adult. Paying rent every month isn’t a surprise. Being low on funds isn’t an excuse and being low on funds isn’t the issue at hand.