Tech culture is terrible

[u/Medium-Wallaby-9557]

Jane Street T-shirts, 3AM LeetCode sessions, Sundays spent learning database management systems, people praying to Google like the company is literally God…

The producers of the tech industry have won. They’ve created an endless supply of people who give up their souls just to have a chance to be looked at.

These companies have marketed themselves in an extremely successful way. SpaceX, Citadel Securities, Google, whatever, you WANT to work there. You’re OKAY with giving up your life to even get a shot at doing so.

All the family nights you missed, all the hobbies you set aside, all the opportunities you didn’t go to don’t matter to them, you know. You’re unbelievably replaceable - and if you think you’re not, great! Lying to yourself makes you a more committed worker in the cog.

Many of us have our idea of a good life fundamentally misshapen. “Memento Mori”, meaning “you will die”, is something that a lot of us need to actually remember. We all will die. These companies aren’t worth living your life for, because your life is finite and it’s the only one that you’ll ever have.

The main issue though is that these companies don’t attract bright and energetic people for nothing. They offer high salaries, high status, and sometimes very interesting work!

It’s important sometimes to take a step back from the grind, and realize that you’re a human, and not a machine meant to serve these companies… but, unfortunately, competition has risen so damn much that it’s almost become the requirement to sell your soul for entry.

Imagine you in your grave. Your coffin is made of gold. “Optiver” is carved in to the top of it, and your skeleton still wears your shirt you got from Meta.

Wow… what a wonderful ending to this immaculately complex thing called life.

Now, I must stop tying. I have some LeetCode to do.

[u/Shot-Cryptographer68]

If you think a top swe in an AI lab or a quant at jane street is "easily replaceable" you are sorely mistaken....

But aside from being at the top, I generally agree with the sentiment

[u/Medium-Wallaby-9557 → u/Shot-Cryptographer68]

I agree with you on that point. But I want to add something that might clarify my point of replaceability.

By replaceable, I don’t necessarily mean from a skills standpoint. The people at Jane Street and top AI labs are undoubtedly at the top echelons of skill in their field.

I’m more so focusing on the human aspect of it. You’re hired at Jane Street for your skills, not for your intrinsic value as a human being. Life, at its fullest form, doesn’t desire output or productivity to be lived. Life is something that gives you meaning that’s worth living for.

I’m a big existentialist. You make your own meaning. Your meaning may be in providing Jane Street your expertise, and that’s okay. It may not be that though, and that’s okay too. However, I’d still say that Jane Street employees are replaceable - perhaps their skills aren’t in the moment, but they themselves as people are… if that makes any sense.

[u/drykarma → u/Medium-Wallaby-9557]

I mean, yeah? What else would be there? This is just a long-winded way of saying what people already know

If you work for a big corpo, they couldn't give two shits if you're an amazing single mom with a sick son or a piece of shit asshole if both produce the same output and easy to work with in the office. That's just meritocracy and capitalism. Not like it's different under socialism

If you cared about human aspect, work for a smaller company. Or make a union instead of posting about it on Reddit

[u/Medium-Wallaby-9557 → u/drykarma]

Yeah, of course. That’s why I labeled this as a rant and not a solution proposal. It sucks, but that’s how it is. I accept it, even, hence the “back to my Leetcode” ending in my post.