I've always been drawn to computers, probably like a lot of people on here.
However I feel like it's the most corporate domain out there. I feel like if I wanna work with computers, I have to work in a big company or in a startup, serving the great Capitalism. I just wanna find a work where I'm not used to enrich people I hate.
Fuck
This is where I am right now too. Work in tech (and games) which was, like, the dream. Love the work most days. Love my team. But hate how much my company is just about extracting value and profits. Even my team is beholden to that. Feels like the drive to create good, cool things has been slowly strangled out of the (corporate) games space.
However I feel like it's the most corporate domain out there.
Unfortunately, computing isn't just corporate. This shit arose out of the military-industrial complex. The civilian applications are an afterthought at most.
I just wanna find a work where I'm not used to enrich people I hate.
Have you thought about going into business for yourself as an independent contractor? Probably get paid better and not have to work as much unpaid overtime for a W2 salary/
This is one of the reasons I'm willing to abandon my dev career, too, and willing for something different within the IT industry, perhaps small and more personal companies as @orna_de_brume suggested.
I feel like technology has been taking strange veers. I remember a time when technology was auxiliary and optional, not something compelled and almost omnipresent. Computers used to sit in their corners, and users could power them on and off as they pleased, users installed and uninstalled things as they pleased. These machines weren't following every single aspect of our daily lives, even when users were enthusiastically tinkering with those machines in a daily basis. Technology was simple, joyful and benign.
It was so different from the technology nowadays, where everything became and demands an app, every aspect of human life and relationships were digitized, and countless subscriptions and ads and tracking/surveillance became the normalcy. The tendency is for such technology to become even more intrusive in our lives. Yeah, there are still good technologies like in the golden times (such as those powering fediverse and geminispace), it's the small and precious oasis, amidst a vast Mad Max-like desert where humanity is being constantly chased.
Having said that, I'll try to be more optimistic and state that we could focus our efforts in building and empowering the good technology, just like in the golden days of technology. That's what I've been trying: to go back to development as a hobby, I've been experimenting with art, math, alternative platforms, among lots of other good things that capitalism don't see as "profitable" because they can't be used for exploitation and control.
As someone pursuing game development, I understand your thoughts a lot too and it's what actually pushed me away from AAA spaces after working in at a studio that was shareholder-run for two years. I'm hoping initiatives like Gemini, more optional third party browsers, new devs, promotion of open source, etc. and more can really bring about a lot of change in the tech space. Though I was born at the cusp of the 21st century, I had the luck of getting to be so hands-on with a computer at a young age when they were still relegated to the "family computer desk." And since both my parents were very tech-savvy, I had a lot more access than some of the families I knew in my town. I still long for those days though I like some conveniences of my phone and hope there's a future where balance is key and profitability and shareholder primacy is not the only thing on corporations' minds.
What a thoughtful comment. I fully agree with everything you said. I've also been experimenting with other things for some time now, I want to get out of the fully technical aspect of computers and explore the interdisciplinary part.
After some thought, I think I'm going to try becoming a high school IT/CS teacher. It's a new thing here in France and I think it would suit me well.
Why not take contracts from local companies and small buisnesses ? You do not have to work for google, you know.
Also, welcome to the pub !
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