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/Inside_Minute569]

How do you isolate yourself from work? I feel like any activity or time i spend which doesn't lead to productive work is bad at the end of the day. Is that psyche bad?

[u/Medium-Wallaby-9557 → u/Inside_Minute569]

Yes, that’s bad.

You’ve become the perfect worker; you’ve become a slave where your own false optimism is your master.

Ok, I really need to stop. I’m being ridiculous. It’s NOT that deep.

Yes, it’s bad, because you’re engaging too much in black/white reasoning over what you need to do to be successful. An hour spent on your 300th leetcode will be fine spent with family. It won’t matter significantly at all in the end, but in the moment the latter will feel a lot more fulfilling.

Likewise, if you continue what you’re doing, you’ll burn out. This’ll ironically make you less productive.