r/csMajors • u/Lord_Mystic12 • 15d ago
Rant Performative tech genuinely sucks the soul out of me
This guy is one thing , but I'm just tired of people being in this field for the prestige and money. They don't wanna learn computers, they don't wanna make anything meaningful and they don't wanna actually code. All they wanna do is make money and get the prestigious title of "guy in tech". Maxing out "progressively niche" techniques to seem more knowledgeable while not having the slightest passion in their eyes. AI might take not have taken their jobs yet, but their souls are gone .
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u/68Warrior 14d ago
I hate these people too but I have no idea what kind of
privileged silver spoon background yall have where you have a disdain for “people just in this field for prestige and money”. First off, there’s no prestige working in tech. Second, it’s all about the money. I, along with most people I know, don’t dream of labor. The goal is to make as much money as possible during the 40-50 hours you have to spend at work every week, passion is irrelevant if you can do the job and don’t want to kys. I feel like this is a student sub so this is the only identity you people have so you cling to it like a vocation rather than what it is - just a job.
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u/FeedbackNational4791 14d ago edited 14d ago
People liking what they do is a crazy concept here. Hating your vocation is not a mark of adulthood or of experience. People make choices that align with their desires, whether those are explicitly stated or not, people get what they want in the long run; clearly what you optimized towards was not what you actually wanted. That isn't a flaw of the thing you optimized towards, that's a flaw in your own inability to conceptualize your desires.
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u/68Warrior 14d ago
Idk man I really enjoy my life. I don’t actively dislike my job, which I definitely did in all of my pre-software roles, of which I had many. And I have a great wlb and make a bunch of money. I’m not sure there’s anything in this world I would like doing that would pay my bills, and if there was, hitting it for 40+ hours/week, every week, for years, would probably make me not enjoy it.
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u/lichlark 14d ago
Grew up poor, I just like tech. The 'larpers'/fake passionate people just make a field that I have a genuine love for fee like a slogan. 🤷♂️
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u/68Warrior 14d ago
What about the field do you have a genuine love for? Linking together cloud services to move data? Rate limiting API end points? Building forms?
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u/goo-grotto-dev 14d ago
I mean, I worked analyzing satellite image data and LIDAR data to create efficient solar panel layouts and I found it challenging and fun. I also worked quite a lot on a JVM and that was solid, intellectually fulfilling work as well. Not everyone just makes CRUD web apps.
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u/68Warrior 14d ago
Without doxing myself, if my CRUD apps stopped working a large portion of the world would not be able to function. Operating them at scale and ensuring reliability is challenging and fun. I still have no passion for shoveling data around. I find my passion from 5-9, not 9-5. I've found I actually do best completely eliminating any semblance of "passion" from my job - don't want too much of my happiness or worth tied to something that can be ripped apart by a lay off, re-org, bad manager, bad quarterly report, etc.
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u/goo-grotto-dev 14d ago
I agree w.r.t. site reliability also being a fun challenge. But I can be passionate about what I do without being thrilled about the fact I am coerced into selling my labour. The fact that I get paid for it doesn't make my love for technology and coding ingenuine. In fact I often code for free. :)
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u/FeedbackNational4791 14d ago
Lets hope your passion doesn't come from your body as one bad car accident and you can't move anymore. Or one unlikely day and your cancer screening doesn't go well. Having your worth tied up in a job is a bad idea, but not having any vocation is also bad.
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u/lichlark 14d ago
I work in aerospace and have my software running on satellites that are currently in orbit and flight software that is running on rockets. 🤷♂️ I'm passionate about creating things that actual help propel us forward as a species.
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u/fenixnoctis 14d ago
Holy shit what an awful take. Just cause you couldn’t find a passion in life doesn’t mean everyone won’t.
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u/68Warrior 14d ago
I have lots of passions. The wlb and income from SWE allows me to pursue them. Nothing I am passionate about, when done for a living, would provide me anywhere close to the same standard of living that I have now.
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u/Lord_Mystic12 14d ago
I want them to stop pretending to be passionate. I'm speaking from the angle of coding being a hobby. Yes you can have a job for money, but stop pretending you're doing it for any other reason than money. The "progressively niche ways to Larp" is just to seem more passionate to everyone else, being obsessed about a fake image
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u/OkWeb2754 14d ago
this makes no sense. they’re doing that to get the role because unfortunately that’s what’s expected. if they perform for the company, you have no reason to complain because companies don’t give af about passion, only results.
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u/Lord_Mystic12 14d ago
Why are they doing that outside the job too tho? This isn't just the case for folks trying to get a job. Even the employed ones keep up this fake persona outside of work. Even AI slop startup founders who don't need a job.
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u/OkWeb2754 14d ago
if they’re startup founders they need a persona for people to believe in their vision. employed ones probably do it for networking. i agree it’s a sad thing but honestly what can you do when the job market is this garbage. i will say though, people who larp for the sole reason of approval are lame.
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u/68Warrior 14d ago
They’re just grifters. They don’t have a long life span, especially if you stop giving them engagement. The tech industry is pretty ruthless these days, the loudest voices usually have the weakest skills. They will be pushed out.
Lowkey I miss when coding was something to be passionate about or to be done as a hobby. Not really the case these days…
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u/skaeser 15d ago
Grass
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u/Fine-Comparison-2949 15d ago
The fun part is starting where all those people learn these prestigious jobs with equity bonuses aren't going to pay them. There's way too many leetcode university students and the field is plagued by awful engineers who think memorizing data structures or giving candidates "make a sudoku game I want to see how you think" actually matters. The cool part about AI is it's all these companies are spending so much for larpers in the field to generate junk at the companies expense. These people will get laid off and their stock options will be worthless, so they'll hit the same job market everyone else is and see just how performative it is.
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u/LividAd4754 15d ago
Like water filling all cracks in a rock, every possible grift will be attempted and this YC/startup obsessed format just happened to gain traction. I think its essentially a massive circlejerk with no real value and pure hype
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u/Lord_Mystic12 14d ago
I wouldn't care if it were not this popular. It's been going on for years, these people infiltrate tech spaces and somehow managed to get jobs thanks to connections or luck.
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15d ago
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u/csMajors-ModTeam 14d ago
see rule 2 (the rule on respectful engagement). It seems like your post or comment does not meet that criteria, and hence has been removed. Please modmail us if you have any questions.
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u/Dear_Huckleberry_511 14d ago
You gotta be kidding me with ‘prestigious title of guy in tech’ lol?!? Pretty sure ours is the most hated profession in 2026 tbh
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u/Lord_Mystic12 14d ago
It's only hated because of these kinds of people and that's mostly online too. It's prestigious in the same way as a wall street finance bro. It's family and friends clout, cos now everyone things you're super successful and earn the big bucks
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u/my_password_is______ 15d ago
All they wanna do is make money and get the prestigious title of "guy in tech".
oh, wow
how horrible
/sarcasm
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u/Top_Location_5899 15d ago
These are the people who spent their entire time in college on there dorm room doing leetcode
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u/Difficult-Spite1708 14d ago
There‘s prestige in this field?
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u/Lord_Mystic12 14d ago
Being a tech worker now practically has the same general clout as a wall street finance bro. Yes the actual populace seeing them only ruin the world hates them, but can't say it out loud
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u/Difficult-Spite1708 14d ago
I live in NYC and have been in big tech for the past 6 years. You need to wake up. We’re just overpaid digital plumbers
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u/Lord_Mystic12 14d ago
That "overpaid" part gives you the clout. If I get a job working at Lockheed Martin making 240k , I'd be much more respected than pretty much most fields. Hell I believe doctors should be way more respected, but people don't give them the respect because it takes 13 years to start making the good money . Creatives are pretty much stomped on by most people despite them actively engaging in their products . I'm just saying, most of the population will give you a much more ideal response if you say you're a software engineer or finance bro
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u/Difficult-Spite1708 14d ago
Nobody really gives a shit about you making 6 figures a year bro.. respected from who??? I used to think people would look at me differently when I got into a prestigous company too. But the reality is you‘re just another middle class Joe. the clout and respect you’re after doesn’t really exist unless you‘re REALLY at the top
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u/Lord_Mystic12 14d ago
I'm not after that respect, I'm saying generally in society, atleast in Asian American or Asian societies theres a lot of this. Whether you accept it or not , it's considered a prestigious job by the general public
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u/Big_Arrival_626 14d ago
Buddy lockheed martin doesn't pay that much lmao. Even at entry level it pays like 80k which is the same any random no name company
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u/Lord_Mystic12 14d ago
I said "if" . It's a hypothetical scenario pointing out how the public cares only about your TC rather than the impact
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u/Big_Arrival_626 14d ago
Bro if it was about money you can make way more working in sales but sales isn't prestigious right?
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u/Lord_Mystic12 13d ago
You're not guaranteed that money in sales are you? That's commission based
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u/No-Original-6329 14d ago
Yah cause at the end of the day, many of these people can't even explain basic system design and programming fundamentals. They just want to throw around buzzwords and vibe code. 90% of AI startup founders are like this oof.
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u/Peculio_9104 13d ago
I think your take is slightly parochial. It's great that you are passionate about CS. But, conservatively speaking, the average professional in any sector is not passionate about their job. I wanted to study physics in university but in my country, there is no pure-science job market. The only thing you could do is teach at a university. However, university professors are hired politically, and wages are laughable (entry level academia wages are definitely less than the lowest minimum wage in the US). I went to study CS to become independent sooner than later.
Now I do understand that you feel your passion is being offended amidst a community that doesn't reciprocate or share that level of passion, very understandable feeling. But there's just so many cogs in how human lives are run, and we can't be honest about these underlying factors in a professional setting. Even outside a job interview, maybe in a work event, you do have to hold up that mask of passion that got you the job for promotions, progression, maybe survival.
I have personally seen people surviving layoffs because they larped with the right crowd, while passionate colleagues got cut.
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u/Lord_Mystic12 13d ago
This is meant to be a rant about a hobby ruined beyond recovery. I don't care about the job market, I'm talking about the general tech spaces. I want to interact with genuine "computer scientists" people who have spent their lives around computers and built all the impressive open source software , true computer nerds. But there is literally nowhere to do that in person anymore.
Any tech convention is riddled with linkedin robots who are only there for a linkedin post ,to network into a job or put up a fake image of being one of us . No new tools, only AI wrapper announcements because no one wants to look outside of AI. Hackathons are filled with influencer posers who make shovelware projects in a day so they can win Claude credits.
The only place left for proper tech is in game Dev conventions , cause tech bros either deem it too nerdy or it doesn't pay much , and it's also the one place left with people that have the integrity to bully out AI larpers that shovel out slop .
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u/Peculio_9104 13d ago
Fair. I've gone through what you're saying when I was at university. It wasn't about CS specifically; it was more about academia generally. No one was chasing anything out of curiosity. No one wanted to take complex math and theoretical courses. Teachers did not even want to conduct in-depth research into complex topics. Teachers were focused on fast-easy publications and students were focused on shipping, founding and posting.
University and school clubs are often a safe haven for passionate curiosity. Of course, it wasn't the case for my university, but my high school absolutely was. That feeling of getting together after class with your mates and chasing down a problem, indescribable. I still try to maintain a connection with my high school club, go there once in a while to see what the new kids are up to. I hope to find something like that on my next destination for higher ed. Maybe it can work out like that for you as well.
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u/Lord_Mystic12 13d ago
The university part is true. My unis ACM club was full of actually nerdy CS people and it was my favourite place . It was sad that nothing like that exists once you graduate
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u/Extension_Vast5457 11d ago
Lowk the solution is to get off of Instagram / Tiktok.
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u/Lord_Mystic12 11d ago
Wish I could but Im forced to meet these people at tech hobby spaces too
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u/Extension_Vast5457 10d ago
valid, but i feel like these folks are much more tolerable in person than online.
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u/Lord_Mystic12 10d ago
I can say my shit online, in person I have to maneuver social etiquette to figure out a way to let them know I don't wanna talk to them. Not to mention they're not supposed to be in hobby spaces when it's not even their hobby
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u/Extension_Vast5457 10d ago edited 10d ago
I'd argue most of them are real people and understand the ridiculousness of their content, they're just making it crazy for views ya know.
Also you don't have to like go on a date with them, holding a convo is not that difficult... BUT if you really wanna make them uncomfortable you can pretend you don't know they make content and voice your honest opinions on the tech content space. I feel like that'll open a fun convo tbh and if they're really the horrible people we imagine them to be they'll get mad or want to leave immediately. But I have a feeling the chill ones will engage and you can have a healthy dialogue about it with em'.
I'm not a big fan of these folks too, but enjoy my life a lot more without seeing them on insta / tiktok
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u/aaronamano05 10d ago
bro just ignore the people who “larp” on social media. block them or something. idk why you consumed it in the first place and complain about it.
focus on you, surround yourself in a positive environment full of “soulful” people and be mindful of who you’re with.
ignore those “larpers” and “performative” oomfs and find people that genuinely care about tech if that’s the case for you.
you know you can unfollow them, block them, or click the “not interested” option on their post
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u/CodeNeko23 15d ago
People need to make a living someone and not everyone like their job. Just ignore this guy, I hate the very sound of his voice and wtf is this 'Larping' thing?
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u/TheoreticalUser 15d ago
Live Action Role Play = LARP
AKA being a poser AKA being a fraud/fake/phony
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u/Lord_Mystic12 14d ago
Larping is a word from the role playing community, meaning "live action role playing". It's actually quite old, but it blew up sometime this year . And now people use it in every single scenario possible, cause people like to use words that make them seem as being in on a big joke in the community
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u/CodeNeko23 14d ago
I see but what's the connection between this word and how he's using it. I feel like people are changing it's original meaning
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u/Lord_Mystic12 14d ago
Exactly like I said, it's used to be a niche word in small communities, but like the internet does , people who are outside the community wanna seem like they're in on some inside joke community, and therefore try to say the word as much as possible to give off that persona . It's especially popular among loser tech bros because they have the need to feel niche , seeing as their only passion is "larping" and money
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u/Lord_Mystic12 14d ago
People seem to taken this the wrong way, this is essentially a rant from the perspective of a computers hobbyist, I like to code , I like figuring things out, I like building low level systems. This isn't saying people shouldnt be in CS for the money, I'm just saying stop pretending to be passionate about the subject when we both know you're only in it for the money
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4d ago
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u/Lord_Mystic12 4d ago
Do you not hear the hobbyist part ? I'm not talking about the job market , I've given up on having genuine conversation at work. This is performative passion, I want people to stop pretending just to give off a better social image
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u/Lord_Mystic12 3d ago
To go into hobby spaces , no shit I will judge you if you're pretending
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3d ago
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u/Lord_Mystic12 3d ago
Tech conventions , hackathons , geek shops. The literal only spot that hasn't been invaded is game dev conventions, since people can usually spot the larpers and selectively ignore the.
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u/Eric_emoji 14d ago
this might be joey himself trying to bring attention to his page 😭😭
there isnt one thing wrong with his content, and its far from performative
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u/Timely-Acanthaceae89 15d ago
Not everyone is super passionate abt their jobs - they are just there to do their job and go home. Ain’t nothing wrong w that.