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I think my reasons for leaving conventional tech were (1) lack of confidence in the future of the industry (2) layoffs risk (3) not wanting to be around assholes
All 3 are just going to get much much worse
but also just the overwhelming empty feeling of.. they're not even pretending to change the world anymore, most companies are actively harming the world. ;/
@skinnylatte you left conventional tech, so are you now into modern tech, or futuristic tech #stupidquestions
@skinnylatte I think a deep mistake was made when three things happened:
1) Framing using tech for good should be perceived as bullshit
2) A sentiment that people working in tech were just trying to make it in capitalism and we shouldn’t be critical
3) A rising sentiment that all tech is evil
The combination of the three made the vast majority of people stop trying, stop caring, and treat all tech jobs equally as evil as each other, regardless of the reality that that’s of course stupid.
@djcapelis i think all of that has brought us to 4. which is, a lot of jobs and stuff in tech are now really just tools of financial engineering.
nothing makes sense anymore. 'company is doing great? layoffs!'
@skinnylatte absolutely.
@skinnylatte As an example, I think we need more conversations not less about how working in tech to make a great aquarium is just a better goal in life than working in tech to sap the information content of the Internet to replace it with as much advertising as possible.
Glad you continue to find a niche working on things that matter. :)
@djcapelis i think about that sometimes but i think the challenge is also that such jobs that are comparable to tech money are so vanishingly few that only a handful of people are ever going to get those. i look at 'civic tech' as a whole after 10-15 years and i have made that conclusion too, that it continues to perpetuate harms as well for minorities, but frankly not enough opportunity to go around for everyone.
a more niche aspect of 'making it in capitalism'.
@skinnylatte Right but before we just called people who prioritized money over ethics sellouts and at some point many on the Internet decided that was mean and capitalism is harsh, so a person making vastly above the wage of their neighbor who made different choices can call themselves just another working class stiff who isn’t responsible for their actions and that’s somehow perceived not only as good praxis but a bold demonstration of solidarity.
And I think ultimately that’s dumb.
@djcapelis oh yeah that was just bad generally.
There were never enough ‘ethical’ jobs for nobody to be a sell out. There never will be
@skinnylatte Probably true. Though at the point that our local bakeries need websites and half the cause of death for local newsrooms is truly atrocious technology, I don’t wonder if there’s not more ethical tech jobs than people expect.
@skinnylatte There’s good intent and truth in some of that, but we owe it to each other to aspire to explain the balance of our actions with our role in how we make money as a tradeoff that it is. And painting every participant in a field with exactly the same brush annihilates that conversation.
@djcapelis this is just another example of ‘you should be blaming capital and orgs, not people’
@skinnylatte@hachyderm.io during this last week, I've seen a lot of people (mostly belong to minority groups) posting about sudden job losses. I suspect a lot of companies have decided they now have the freedom to get rid of the people they never wanted in the first place.
I've worked in tech for most of my career.
You got me thinking about what I look for in an employer:
1. How the organization treats people, e.g. prospects for growth vs. layoffs, if it uses an outsourced automated applicant tracking system (ATS, always bad), and--in a worst case--collusion against workers (see link)
2. How well I get along with my boss (current or prospective)
3. How interesting I find the work
I'm also amused by your use of the term "conventional tech". I think my third criteria has helped me to avoid much of the conventional...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Tech_Employee_Antitrust_Litigation
(edit: added ATS)
Thinking more about what traits I find undesirable in potential employers, I found delight in this short thread: "Why does NVIDIA still use workday for job application?"
(Workday is a horrible gatekeeper that requires far longer than the claimed "2 minutes" to submit an application. Every thoughtless and clearly-automated rejection tells me that the employer doesn't care, and that I've wasted my time applying; I infer that they're automated because the system sends rejections via email in the middle of the night, about 6-8 hours after I apply for jobs I think I'm a good fit for. Conversely, an internal referral--handled through the same infernal system--got more than 2 weeks of consideration.)
https://www.teamblind.com/post/Why-does-NVIDIA-still-use-workday-for-job-application-D3SiN6MJ