This reads to me as yet another screed by someone who has never worked outside the tech industry. Software Engineering is IMO the best, most privileged job available in the US, and I suspect in much of the world. Life-long tech workers have no idea how much worse conditions are even for “knowledge workers” in other fields.
Case in point, when we get a tired of the office grind we can publish a manifesto that slams tons of people we’ve worked with in the past (with no fear of consequences from those burned bridges), move to a resort wherever we want, and still expect to either make great pay with benefits while fully remote, or realistically start our own business with a great chance of success (and can easily raise funding to defray the risk if we want to).
I’m grateful to work in software. It’s a wonderful thing that we have so much privilege. And so of course, at a time when the world has been quite stirred up and most of our lives affected, it’s great to see many engineers have the freedom to change jobs to fit their lives better, and that they’re exercising that freedom.
But could we observe and write about all that without the anger and entitlement? For anyone who has worked in other fields, or even less in-demand jobs in tech, it just comes across as whiny and out of touch.
Case in point, when we get a tired of the office grind we can publish a manifesto that slams tons of people we’ve worked with in the past (with no fear of consequences from those burned bridges), move to a resort wherever we want, and still expect to either make great pay with benefits while fully remote, or realistically start our own business with a great chance of success (and can easily raise funding to defray the risk if we want to).
I’m grateful to work in software. It’s a wonderful thing that we have so much privilege. And so of course, at a time when the world has been quite stirred up and most of our lives affected, it’s great to see many engineers have the freedom to change jobs to fit their lives better, and that they’re exercising that freedom.
But could we observe and write about all that without the anger and entitlement? For anyone who has worked in other fields, or even less in-demand jobs in tech, it just comes across as whiny and out of touch.