Yeah that didn't pan out

I like solving puzzles, and I have a knack for programming specifically

I just think computers are neat 🤷‍♂️

I thought it was interesting. Then I dropped out because programming was more fulfilling and I didn't need to become a CS major to be a programmer.

Me over here who just liked problem solving and making things.

too many people be like this. well, they're gonna have a rough awakening when the IT job market collapses.

Lol we tricked an entire generation into oversaturating the STEM market so Lockheed Martin could get cheaper labor :3

Tech workers have historically been respected and well-paid, without unions. The power of tech workers did not come from solidarity, but from scarcity, Doctorow said. The minute bosses ordered tech workers to enshittify the product they were loyally working on, perhaps missing various important social and family events to ship it on time, those workers could say no—perhaps in a much more coarse way. Tech workers could simply walk across the street ""and have a new job by the end of the day"" if the boss persisted.

So labor held off enshittification after competition, regulation, and interoperability were all systematically undermined and did so for quite some time—until the mass tech layoffs. There have been half a million tech workers laid off since 2023, more are announced regularly, sometimes in conjunction with raises for executive salaries and bonuses. Now, workers cannot turn their bosses down because there are ten others out there just waiting to take their job.

Source

Too many people like this have ruined the field.

If we hadn’t made this all 100% about the money the entire world would be running on the best possible software.

An example I’ll give is ghostty, where 1 guy who got rich enough to cash out gets to spend his time making insanely good software, using a somewhat risky pre 1.0 language that would never get approved by corporate/investors, just because he wants to and enjoys it. And he openly chastises people telling him to enshittify or turn it into a business, because he doesn’t need to.

The entire Web 2.0 was built on the exact same thing with pylons, Django, rails, flask, etc. being born out of people who just wanted to code.

If I had 5-10x more wealth so that I never had to worry about money, this is what I’d be doing too.

Actually, what I’d be doing is attending university classes every day and writing software and doing analysis on the side.

Good luck finding a job at all and especially if you're in it only for the money

Because I thought computers would be less unpleasant to deal with than people.

Turns out they can be just as stupid, and I didn't even get out of having to work with people either.

I wish I could say the same. I didn't get into programming for the money, I got into it because it was the only thing I was any good at and generally wouldn't discriminate against me because of my disability.

In the grand scheme of society, it’s kinda bonkers how there was such a short window to go to learn something like Web Development and get a job before it started being replaced. Basically a job that existed for ~30 years and won’t be around much longer.

(Yes I know AI is dumb, but it doesn’t matter if C-Suite execs think it can do it, they’ll replace jobs with AI)

I, too, chose the career where you get paid to google your own problems all day.

Yes and no, I don't want to deal with people too much. But I'm in help desk so it's only half true

To do? Because there's a chance I can do that without meds. To study? Because that's kinda needed.

Whoooooops!