Post #4465921

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• @mayintoronto@beige.party 2026-08-08 22:17

  @Amgine@mamot.fr I don't agree with the primary thesis of the article. There were always workaholics. But the people who desired and demanded fulfillment from the work: it was always about a celebration of being great at our craft, and the societally meaningful output at the end of the day from that craft. Software was cool because you could build tools that make certain complex or undesirable tasks simpler, or easier to tackle. The conflict has always existed between building the right tools that solve problems for the customer (buyer and user) against the extractive growth at all cost model, exacerbated by the impossible growth needed to sustain the VC/PE model of endless exits... until your company gets acquired by a megacorp where it goes to die. That was always there. Even the people who loved this work, the goal was always to retire from the capitalistic system early so they can build their own thing on their retirement goat farm. It's just that now, the working conditions are so much worse. The craft feels less like the craft that made this work worthwhile. We have to cope with so much more slop in every direction. We're watching our counterparts throw out basic foundations of good software to adopt AI. Salaries have gone down and retirement is further than ever. Rent and the costs of living extract so much from us that even our relatively cushy salaries now feel like the average middle class living. This has nothing to do with "knowledge work", and everything to do with the broken social contract across every element of society by the ultra rich. And more than ever, tech workers are wondering if their new lower salaries and reduced job security are worth this bullshit.

  Open ##4465920