It started to suck though as the company inverted and became top-down again. Management experimented with "agile" development, required a certain percentage of code coverage with BS unit-tests, code reviews became a thing, teams started insisting on style guidelines....

I was just thinking today that I would not recommend to my daughters to go into the software industry. The Golden Age, as far as I'm concerned, came and went. It was long before Covid though.

I'm genuinely curious: You don't think unit tests are a good thing? Or code reviews? Or style guidelines?

Or is it just a matter of how those things were implemented that rubs you the wrong way?

I often have fun at work, cracking a hard bug for me is fun and yet I would never go in if I weren't paid. And my employer thinks I provide value for them and pays for this indeed.

I've experienced both ends of the spectrum: the work is the easiest you could imagine, but excruciating only because of the handful of vile people I worked with, on the other hand I pushed myself up against my limit every day but it was worth it because we were in it together.

that tired joke just reinforces the silly notion that individuals should just put up with things for money, and probably even be grateful for it.

laying it all out, that’s quite funny.

Well, yes. If you enjoy doing it then you'll do it for free. No need to pay you.

why do it for free if someone needs the thing done and is willing to pay? they pay you for what they view as work, and you do what you view as play.

is that such a wild notion for you?

You get paid to deliver more value to someone than you cost them (or someone else might cost them!)

Whether or not you have fun has little to do with it.

having fun can actually increase value produced.

so, yes, it very much has something to do with it.

Neither is leisure. Doesn’t mean it can’t be.

True, in a state of nature, we would all have to work to survive, but we also wouldn’t have to obey anyone’s so-called “property rights” either. We could just use our hunting spears on the people trying to block our access to resources. If society expects us to follow rules, as it needs us to do in some fashion, then it should offer basic protection.

Take it up with the creator of the Universe, as those are the rules they've chosen - valueable things, such as food, heat or shelter, do not just materialize in front of people out of thin air. They need to be grown or made, and it requires work.

Also, how is the current scarcity artificial? Are we limiting the output somehow? Could we for example produce much more cheap food, but we don't, in order to keep the proles scared?

He is saying that we limit his inputs. He wants to, for example, be able to produce his own food as to not have to rely on deals made with other people to acquire food, but notes that society carefully controls who has power over the land that is able to support that production, leaving nowhere for him to do so, and leaving him at the mercy of being able to reach agreements with others – others who may not want to make an agreement with him – in order to eat.

He says that without a strong society he could push anyone standing in his way of the land aside (by brutal force, if necessary), but an entire society standing in his way is a force too great. As such, he believes that great force should provide suitable compensation for the restrictions it imposes (e.g. if you aren't permitted access to land to produce your own food, you should be guaranteed access to food by some other means).

You don't have to obey them now either, but don't come crying to us when someone kills you for trying to take it just like they would have if you tried to come in and take over some tribe's land in the past.

The only difference now is that you might get the luxury of just going to court or jail.

if you don’t want a replicator, that’s fine. just get out of the way please. there’s work to be done.

to grit one’s teeth?

you think them unrelated.

This is a silly statement. You might as well say Superman powers ought to be unconditional.

Whose rights get to be trampled to give you this unconditional right to do nothing while receiving "free" stuff? Anyone with your mindset is an out of touch elitist. SOMEONE will still have to provide you food, electricity, medical etc. So, what you're saying is you actually want a slave class that provides YOU the right to not "earn a living".