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PaperclipPerfector  5d ago (text post)   28043 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 3, 2025

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I'm seeing people who had long term and stable government contracts, sometimes decades, being let go.

I have fairly negative reactions to this kind of lamentation.

My first experience with "government stability" is when I was in high school. I was really good at computers and would cut class and hang out in the computer lab and the people working there decided I was a mild net benefit so they put up with me. This was during the dot com bubble so I was on the cusp of dropping out and chasing big money.

Most of the technicians there were grade A mopes who couldn't hack their way out of MS Word, but one was particularly skilled and we got to talking. He said he was making some meager $45k/year. I asked him why he was working there for so little money instead of at a dot com and he said he just wanted the job security.

That made no mathematical sense given that he could have been raking in $150k/year as a systems administrator with the slightest bit of hustle but whatever.

In a somewhat Joker kind of way I think it's more life-affirming to cut these government jobs. Between market forces for labor and more regular job changes, this guy would be dragged kicking and screaming into finding a job that paid him what he was actually worth.

(Or maybe not whatever)

In a somewhat Joker kind of way I think it's more life-affirming to cut these government jobs. Between market forces for labor and more regular job changes, this guy would be dragged kicking and screaming into finding a job that paid him what he was actually worth.

Don't scare me like that. Now I'ma hafta go buy like 10 lotto tickets to counterbalance this idea.

(The much smaller, fewer numbers, state lottery with a mere 6 figure payout. The odds are way better. I'm stupid, but if I'm throwing money away, I at least wnt to stack the odds if possible.)

No really; I struggle to think of brainwork of actual value that I could be doing. The ability to code does not make one a worthy asset anymore. On top of which, all I'd do with a spare million is ... IDK, hire someone from TeamFourStar to voice minor NPCs in my crappy game, and throw a bunch of it at creaters and charities who are underfunded. I'm not sure that's worth uprooting my life for a soul-sucking desk job at a tech city or whatever. My local CoL is fantastically low and family's nearby. My "house" finally seems livable, after all the work gone into it, but it's still not worth more than I could make by saving for a couple two-or-three years. Also my resume is mostly a bunch of crappy audio games that are not on Github.

... Why haven't I put my codebase on Github, anyway? Oh, right; most of it's redundant.

Also my resume is mostly a bunch of crappy audio games that are not on Github.

Are they on Itch, at least?

That made no mathematical sense given that he could have been raking in $150k/year as a systems administrator with the slightest bit of hustle but whatever.

Many people are very scared of applying to jobs, nervous about interviews, just can’t handle the stress.

I sympathize with the guy in your example.

Realistically, I know I could make more money than I do now by grinding leetcode and hopping from one startup to another every three years. I choose not to do that, though, because the entire associated process is miserable and incentivizes collecting your paycheck and running before the whole house of cards collapses around you.

I'm pretty sure that if I were forced into that, "kicking and screaming", I'd just go back to being a welder for half what I'm making now.

incentivizes collecting your paycheck and running before the whole house of cards collapses around you.

I am not this pessimistic about private sector work, but even if I was I think I'd still consider it less soul crushing than tending a computer lab in a public high school?

less soul crushing than tending a computer lab in a public high school

In 2025? You're probably right.

If I'm comparing a high school in 1999 to today's startup ecology? I'll take the high school.

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