You might find that your attitude is the problem, and not the industry itself. If you’re so cynical as to compare writing code for a living to human trafficking and sex work, which are very real problems that you have carelessly and insensitively used as a metaphor, maybe you should find a new gig.

And this isn’t about political correctness, either. I don’t care about them. But if you were going to use this metaphor and this style, you better do it well, and you failed. This post isn’t edgy or interesting or novel.

It's not really new; Musicians and artists who make an income from their work often compare it to prostitution. You're not selling your body, so much as your soul. Personally I find the comparison melodramatic, but I understand the sentiment.

> You might find that your attitude is the problem, and not the industry itself. If you’re so cynical as to compare writing code for a living to human trafficking and sex work, which are very real problems that you have carelessly and insensitively used as a metaphor, maybe you should find a new gig.

He's extending on a comparison by Dave Chappelle, who wasn't actually talking about sex work itself, but rather the kinds of manipulation exploitative people use to push others past their limits in order to profit from them more. Someone linked it here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25997841.

I think the OP article has issues, but not the one you're complaining about.

I think what a lot of engineers that come fresh out of college need to understand one thing: Not every day in your career is going to be constantly fulfilling. Sure there's gonna be days, weeks or even months worth of really cool stuff you'd work on, but majority of your career is going to be spent on mindless, completely soul sucking work while also dealing with other aspects of working with other human beings. Let's just put it this way, cool problems that need solving are rare. And 99% of the solution for those cool problems are gonna be not so cool.

Not everyone gets to build a rocket to Mars, even if you work at SpaceX. Some sucker is gonna have to write a shitty internal facing utility that everyone hates and no one uses, because that's part of the larger "cool" endeavor of sending people to Mars.

It can be _mostly_ fulfilling if you find a good team and a compelling project. Too often work is a chore due to the emotional labour necessary to work with toxic people on a dreary project.

I think this person is very harsh in their judgement of people who went into programming as a career choice rather than out of some starry eyed passion for computing.

I was absolutely one of those "dead eyed zombies" in my CS classes in university. And I loved computers and computing!

What I was lacking was energy from working two part time jobs while attending classes. What I was struggling with wasn't a lack of passion for programming, it was a lack of passion for anything, because my teenaged years had ground it out of me.

Depression is a bitch.

I read this and I'm always so sad someone has had an entirely different and clearly much much worse time in tech than my own. I read through and I can only relate in a little way and in very specific cases to what was written.

I always take a moment afterwards to reflect on why I have potentially avoided what seems like such a common and sad story in tech. We as an industry need to do better, and I'm not sure what that looks like.

Jesus, move out of SV. There are plenty of good places to live and work as a software engineer in other areas than northern CA (this coming from an engineer in CA)

That’s a lot of anger and resentment. I think this resonated a bit for one of my jobs (that I did stay way too long at). Despite my endless complaining about that job, I stuck around. I can’t think of a real reason why, I don’t know if I was scared or complacent or what. There are a lot of good memories with friends (stuck in the same trap) there.

Don’t be afraid to change things. You’re the hero of your own life’s story.

  > no sonny boy, you were a worker bee at some
  > gray security software company that peddled
  > software no one wanted or even used

This whole silly essay is just an exercise in the gonzo writing style, but is otherwise completely unnecessary.

I do believe that people can have bad luck with companies, managers, projects. I also believe that some people find their chosen field just isn't for them and should probably get out (if they can) whatever bronze handcuffs they have. Especially if they're younger and have other viable options. (Or if it's mostly a big company sort of issue they have, explore other alternatives.)

I’ve worked in places like this (Machine Zone straight out of Freemium isn’t free https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freemium_Isn%27t_Free) and other much better places. Ironically the most corporate and dull place I worked was owned by Penthouse (not soul sucking, but nothing to write home about either. Think Johnathan Coulton’s Code Monkey song). And the best company I’ve worked for seems like the definition of boring corporation, LinkedIn.

It’s all what you make of it, but when the company itself is treating you like a whore then it just makes every grievance that much worse.

How is this more or less "whoring" than any other job on the planet?

> Dave Chappelle has a bit in which he talks about how this one pimp manages to "get extra mileage" from one of his (the pimps) whores who is on the brink of quitting, of breaking down. The horrible story, expertly delivered by one the greatest stand-up comedians and storytellers to ever live, is an allusion to what happened to Mr. Chappelle in Hollywood - an explanation on why he left and went to fucking Africa of all places, choosing to renounce millions of dollars, his cut from a show he created. The story is from a book written by an actual pimp:

> This story resonated with me, deeply....

So, what's the bit or the story that he's referring to here?

Hard to believe paying engineers to work several months on a fake project is some master pimp move. Why couldn't they find some new project that the company could use? Like a new internal tool or something.

My grandfather worked in a coal mine and died in a coal mine. My father worked 40 years in a shipyard. I've worked 40 years in a various cubical farms. Get over it, work is work, that's why they pay you. Be grateful that you have a job. Do what you can to make work a better environment for you and your co-workers. At the end of the day you job isn't you life - it provides for your life.

They spend a lot of time tearing down others but not really giving us any reason why they were so supposedly superior. Just came off as an arrogant whiny rant.

This makes the case for 20% work as a mental health issue.