Software development isn’t going anywhere. Just learn the new tools. Current AI can’t do anything more than templated copy paste and semantic search.

Honestly for engineering, AI is only good and boiler plate and reminding you of thing you already know but forgot.

Also FYI there is only one party, the rich.

And even after adjusting for cost of living, SF just has better pay and more jobs.

Not what I'm talking about; I can have a nihilist burnout about something other than being a software engineer. It's just run-of-the-mill angst towards the tragedy of the commons is all.

When I get that angst I look at age demographics charts for my country. Much of current days politics are from old people who want nothing to progress and would prefer to go back a century or two. But the younger generations are strongly opposed to that and of course own the future. 20 is far too young to step back and depoliticize yourself. Use that shock for progress where you can make it. And do set out on a career in whatever pays and you like.

Maybe interact with some older people and be friendly while being as out of their comfort zone as you want. It bridges gaps.

Edit-also, I know many viewpoints say what’s already happened is baked in and it’s impossible to clean up the situation. This is fundamentally opposed to human nature and power of human will. Yes there are large problems, but it’s precisely existential crises that bring out the strongest response from an organism and, collectively, our humanity. If we want carbon out of the air bad enough there will be a technological way to do it. Many other such things. Plus this period might cure humanity of its apathy towards the commons-if humanity is scared, harmed, and pissed off enough to force it.

Thanks for this, I appreciate your optimism

Absolutely. It is not common for the outgoing generation(s) to treat the youth like this. Theres maybe some tendency for the older generations to get opinionated about whatever. But past generations also knew when to bow out and enjoy their later years-leaving the frustrating stuff to the youth to figure out. What we see now is radicalism from rampant propaganda pushing perceived differences to the point of an Us Vs Then perception.

There is no survival, everything dies. I die, you die, civilisation dies, humanity dies, all life, eventually all matter dies.

Just have some fun in the interim.

Bit of a party @ the end of the world then, huh.

>and I've read everything from Atomic Habits to Zero to One.

But have you read much history? Sure there are problems now, but there always have been and always will be.

The Worldly Philosophers was good. Past that no history stuff. Recommendations?

Hit up YouTube for some college history lectures~Native American history, colonial history, post-colonial/US revolutionary War, World War history, European history, Africa/asia, it’s a lot. Check out Stephen Kotkin. He’s got an epic Lex Fridman interview.

WWII seems to rhyme most these days. Also the fall of the Roman Empire-specifically how death threats and assassinations deteriorated the Roman senate.

The definitive book on the Great Depression https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Crash,_1929

Be sure to read at least the end of https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Diary_of_a_Young_Girl (forget how much we covered in school, probably just excerpts).

The Western Tradition comes to mind:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFZ8SdZBZEi_9MYnPrC04...

Depends if you join the socialist elite or become their slaves like the rest of us.

They murdered 100 million last century, how many billions this century?

Either I'm uneducated or I'm missing something about your post, but what "socialist elite" are you referring to here?

Perspective. Consider how our parents felt, how our grandparents felt, how our great grandparents felt.

They had similar levels of anxiety about the future. They all felt peril.

For example, some were in a world war and maybe their friends and family were being killed. Objectively a world war is worse peril than meta building AI glasses! Thinking about others can give perspective on our own feelings.

I would also say that it's a flaw of psychology that we always think right now is the most important time but looking at history and changing perspective can help your view.

Escape the bubble. Tech doomism is as much side effect as tech utopianism of the bay area.

The difference between all of those previous deadly perils and the current deadly perils of climate change and ecological collapse is that the latter are already happening and unstoppable. It's as if (in the nuclear war scenario) all of those ICBMs are in flight and some of them have already delivered their payloads.

It was the seeming unstoppable force of the nazis and total war that led the development of those nuclear weapons. Most of the biggest names in science came together to make sure the nazis lost and the total war ceased.