Let's all go to church and recite the litany of the grind factory, lmfao. Let's spread our gospel to the children, no it's because they're "hardcore," not because they're tractable!! For sure the actions of a culture that has a strong handle on the human mind haha
I can't tell you all what to do with this whole thing you've built here but I CAN teach you to understand it and in my experience that really defangs it
Knowledge workers having a good time and treating each other kindly and being inclusive about the future is actually so profoundly terrifying to the machine that they have to construct the most elaborate mental prison possible to convince you you can't be that way
They are working against your own psychology but they're doing a good job at it! They're exploiting the parts of you that respond to threat, and they're dangling always conditional belonging in front of you to convince you that you have to cling to groups and leaders and Technical Superstars that you secretly *hate* looking up to. The only way past this is seeing through it.
@jenniferplusplus when I got into this industry, it was just a normal, decent paying career that seemed to have a level of job security. Then the dotcom era happened and things rapidly got crazy. I thought post bust things would get better, and I think in some ways they did, but then the social media boom happened and it's been very ugly.
I've once again retreated into academia and am almost counting the days until I can retire, assuming everything I need for that won't get looted.
@jenniferplusplus I watched that change. I would say men were a majority, but women were better represented than they are today. Two of my earliest mentors were women and they were utterly brilliant.
@lerxst @jenniferplusplus yeah, it's truly tragic. As far as I can tell, the seeds of this kind of culture were very present in that shift and that accumulation of power
@vt52 @jenniferplusplus I mean my spouse and I are both legally ineligible to unionize but that doesn't mean there's nothing for us to work on and no impact we can have
not only that, but choosing the mental prison means you are smarter than everyone else, and anyone who tells you it is bad can be ignored because they simply aren't smart enough to understand.
I suspect there's a good paper in comparing this with how they got 18-year-olds to volunteer for wars of conquest. Big ideals, macho nonsense, and wildly different standards for the order-givers and the cannon fodder.
@mayintoronto ❤️ immigrant resilience and survival puts so many other things into perspective. Bless him and his courage and all he had to survive. Can only imagine how meaningful it is for him to see you get to be you
I've been feeling burnt out recently - I'm actually still on a camping holiday to get away from things - and it hit me. This really isn't work stress.
I'm fucking angry at the entire industry I've spent my whole working life in - watching idiots put productivity as life, 10x engineering and now AI bullshit.
The second reason for this trip is to find a remote enough area of Brittany, France to move to in the next 5 years before the collapse comes.
Cat Hicks
in reply to Cat Hicks • • •Cat Hicks
in reply to Cat Hicks • • •Cat Hicks
in reply to Cat Hicks • • •Coach Pāṇini ®
in reply to Cat Hicks • • •Cat Hicks
in reply to Cat Hicks • • •Sandor Spruit 🇪🇺🇳🇱🇺🇦🇨🇦
in reply to Cat Hicks • • •jstatepost
in reply to Cat Hicks • • •That would be so awesome.
Jenniferplusplus
in reply to Cat Hicks • • •Cat Hicks
in reply to Jenniferplusplus • • •Cat Hicks
in reply to Cat Hicks • • •Ludwig Vielfrass
in reply to Cat Hicks • • •@jenniferplusplus when I got into this industry, it was just a normal, decent paying career that seemed to have a level of job security. Then the dotcom era happened and things rapidly got crazy. I thought post bust things would get better, and I think in some ways they did, but then the social media boom happened and it's been very ugly.
I've once again retreated into academia and am almost counting the days until I can retire, assuming everything I need for that won't get looted.
Cat Hicks
in reply to Ludwig Vielfrass • • •Ludwig Vielfrass
in reply to Cat Hicks • • •Cat Hicks
in reply to Ludwig Vielfrass • • •veetee
in reply to Jenniferplusplus • • •Cat Hicks
in reply to veetee • • •FoolishOwl
in reply to Cat Hicks • • •binchicken
in reply to Cat Hicks • • •William Pietri
in reply to Cat Hicks • • •Muro deGrizeco
in reply to Cat Hicks • • •It does have a strange religious component!
A former workplace had a weird cult slogan, which I will only paraphrase as,
"Ego-Death, Super-Perform!"
prom™️
in reply to Cat Hicks • • •aerique
in reply to Cat Hicks • • •Cat Hicks
Unknown parent • • •Aaron
in reply to Cat Hicks • • •Cat Hicks
Unknown parent • • •kirakira☆
in reply to Cat Hicks • • •chobeat
in reply to Cat Hicks • • •Cat Hicks
in reply to chobeat • • •chobeat
in reply to Cat Hicks • • •chobeat
in reply to chobeat • • •Cat Hicks
in reply to chobeat • • •botvolution
in reply to Cat Hicks • • •Tane Piper ⁂
in reply to Cat Hicks • • •I've been feeling burnt out recently - I'm actually still on a camping holiday to get away from things - and it hit me. This really isn't work stress.
I'm fucking angry at the entire industry I've spent my whole working life in - watching idiots put productivity as life, 10x engineering and now AI bullshit.
The second reason for this trip is to find a remote enough area of Brittany, France to move to in the next 5 years before the collapse comes.
Scott Francis
in reply to Cat Hicks • • •