I started my IT career in 2011, I have enjoyed it, I have got to do a lot of interesting stuff and meet interesting people, I will treasure those memories forever.
But, starting with crypto turing general computing from being:
“Wow, this machine can run so many apps at the same time!” or “Holy shit, those graphics look epic!” or “Amazing, this computer has really sped up that annoying task!”
To being:
Yo! Look at how many numbers I can generate!
That brought down my enthusiasm severely, but hey, figuring out solutions to problems was still fun.
Then came AI/LLMs.
And with it, a mountain of slop.
Finding help about an issue has gone from googling and reading help articles written by something with an actual brain to mostly being rephrased manuals that only provide working answers to semi standard answers.
Add to that a general push to us AI in anything and everything, no matter how little relevance it holds for the task at hand.
I also remember how AI was sold to the us at first, we were promised to do away with boring paperwork, so we could get on with our actual job.
What did we get? An AI that takes the fun and creative parts, leaving the paperwork for the workers.
We got an AI that we need to expect to be stealing our work and data at every point, giving us shit work back, while being told that we should applaude it and be grateful for it.
And the worst thing, the worst thing is that people seem happy with it. I keep getting requests to buy another Copilot license or asking for another AI service to be added to our tenant, I am sick of it!
We got an AI that somehow has slithered onto the golden throne and can’t be questioned.
I am not able to leave the tech market at this time, but I will focus on more tangible hobbies going forward.
This year, I have given myself a project, I will try to build a model railway in a suitcase. That will be a Z-scale tiny world in a suitcase.
I have never done anything remotely like it, but I feel like I need something physical to take my mind off tech.
Sorry for the rant, but I just came off of a high from realizing and putting words to my feelings.
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Mine has been helpdesk>sysengineer>network engineer>hgv driver. I still tinker for fun but I hate working with computers now
Eh, some people generate slop using AI, while I fixed a visual glitch unique to Linux in a Unity game yesterday. No, I didn’t have the source. Just Lorn’s Lure, straight from Steam.
GPT-5.3-Codex didn’t even decompile the code or anything. It instead analysed the IL code, and wrote a C# program to patch the game’s viewrange, because it figured that was the issue (which it was).
I had some z-fighting issues, which don’t exist on Windows, because Linux uses OpenGL instead of DirectX I guess? Anyway, having a farClip of 70_000 (yes, 70k) is a bit much for OpenGL 😂)
I do understand that the mountain of slop being generated isn’t exactly fun, nor is it fun that AI is being jammed into literally everything (even though some locations can still be useful), I think humanity at large needs some time adapting to start ignoring slop; we’ll eventually adapt to it, as we did to everything before. Until then, try to find new way to use them, perhaps?
omfg shut up
I like to think your edit was changing it from “omg shut up.”
Then you’ll be pleased to know it was.
Fuck yeah, friend!
<3
I hope I never have to buy a car with one of those damn screens controlling everything.
I love Carplay, that being said it should be built to be controlled with buttons and knobs on the steering wheel.
The IT worker pipeline:
help desk > sysadmin > CTO/CISO > goat farmer
Well, I have no intention of hitting CTO/CISO, so no goat farming for me
Still on help desk and can’t seem to get past it. Goat farmer is already appealing but I can’t afford it. There are few job opportunities where I live too.
Hey, look on the bright side…
Most people can’t even get help desk jobs these days.
I’m devops? Horse shit. Maybe you ain’t making 150k right out of college but there are PLENTY of devops jobs.
Id take it for minimum wage if there was a job here just to be doing something new and interesting.
Its not that no one is getting jobs, its that the market is saturated and getting worse. Tech firms have layed off or off shored hundreds of thousands of workers and with “AI” the number of roles is dropping quickly; especially entry level roles.
Yep. Wages and 160k+ out of school are slowing down and mostly going away. Still plenty of the regular stuff left.
If you know TF, and container deployments you can find a job for 120k all day at the drop off a hat in the states. Send me a resume and I’ll ping you to a role we are filling for 140k.
As a senior I found a role for 210 and turned down 3 150-175k offers 3 months ago.
It’s harder, it’s still not physical labor for slave wages.
There is a right sizing of over hiring as well as everyone scrambling to find what real efficiency AI brings. It’s bringing variability.
The irony is that the subfield with active hiring is the one that will ultimately make the very work they are doing redundant.
The magic is gone and the intellectual challenge is fading fast. I saw the writing on the wall and am jumping ship to something decidedly non-tech 🙂
One plus point for recent tech trends, my Commodore 64 is seeing a lot more use!
The problem isn’t the tools, but rather the sociopath executives and the individuals who won’t stick up for themselves. Everyone loses when people don’t stand up for what’s right.
This year, I have given myself a project, I will try to build a model railway in a suitcase. That will be a Z-scale tiny world in a suitcase.
I used to make miniature buildings out of things like balsa wood, spackle, etc for D&D. It became a challenge to see how closely I could simulate things like grass, torches, etc.
I’ve felt much of the same things. It’s depressing. The Internet used to be cool. Tech used to be cool.
Fortunately, I’ve been doing more things in the real world. I’ve been fixing up an old car. It’s fun to drive it even though it’s slow and noisy and hilariously unsafe. I’ve been practicing archery with my kid. We are both getting decent. I’ve been writing more. I have been raising chickens, I now have 14 lovely girls who give me and my neighbors free eggs, and one bigass hateful rooster that keeps them safe. Lastly I’ve been teaching myself drone photography. I’ve been building a meshtastic network on my area.
So the Internet used to be cool but… I’ve decided that I’m going to just have to be cool instead.
Same here. Specifically, I do still love technology and all sorts of STEM subjects, but I have no excitement for tech products.
I’m personally focusing on the parts of tech I still find enjoyable. Chip / circuit design, OS and low level programming, and Formal Verification.
All of the patient detailed work that AI is never going to be able to do, because it has to be perfect to work. I feel lucky that I enjoy this type of work, it seems to be very much against the Zeitgeist.
I’m still cool with tech, but only if there is a radical shift in how it’s being used and integrated into society as a whole. In my view, people are using tech as a crutch or substitute to supplement the limitations of biology. IMHO that is the wrong way to go about it.
The disgusting weaknesses of the flesh should not be supported by technology, but should instead be supplanted by it. The purity of the machine is not a stepping stone to some higher enlightened state, it IS the enlightened state. At the same time, we must shun the heresy of the Abominable Intelligence and instead wed the purity of true thought and knowledge to a vessel that is capable of fully encompassing its divinity.
The crude biomass which is generally held to be a temple is nothing more than the result of random trial and error. Inevitably it will fail. In that moment, only those who aspire to the perfection of the machine and the blessed strength of steel will receive salvation.
I serve the Omnissiah.
Sounds like you are doing sysadmin work for an public institution or so where people are only bullshitting their jobs. Maybe try moving to something more impactful? Like rail infrastructure or so?
sysadmin work for an public institution or so where people are only bullshitting their jobs.
About half my career and part of my current contract load is to a public organization of one type or another. But I’ve been half and half anyway.
Dotcom is a wasteland of gunners/pluggers and wageslaves, none of them afforded enough time to get anything complete and good. Public orgs with union contracts employ people with a good life balance and the freedom to do a great job about 95% of the time, after the layers of regulations are met.
I found slackers at both types of org: the public slacker is a hapless clod whose tasks all get reassigned and he really doesn’t do much. He’s about 3% of the workforce. The dotcom slacker is a harried guy muddling through something he’s not trained for, with no help since his peers have their own KPIs, hoping like fuck he can get Project Grapefruit done by next Town Hall meeting lest he be voted off the island. Again, 3%.
The public org is great people who’ve done this work effectively their entire career. They’re astoundingly good at it, and are still energized by the work and the educational programmes. Dotcoms have no training and the few people who make it past 2 years are likely PIPped by year 4 because of the “fresh talent” policy
I envy the public org people. I miss my non-work life sometimes.
For almost my entire career I have been working in the finance industry, my past place of work was amazing, if I get an offer to go back, I would go immediately.
I wouldn’t mind working in IT at a rail company, would be interesting
finance industry
That’s the worst, mate. Just switching to a different filed may improve things. Nowhere is sunshine and rainbows, but I’m I’m in medical tech and not finance. Helping save lives is at least something I believe in, instead of moving money to siphon money.
Pivot to OT or telecommunication. Actual telecommunications in any industrial setting is screaming for capable people and is normally focused on providing critical safety systems. You may have to work for a soul destroying Oil and Gas company, but you could also get into rail or power.
That actually sounds quite interesting!
I find telecoms to be interesting.
I really like the work, Equipment tends to be a lot more diverse than bog standard IT, networks and systems more targeted to specific applications, technologies could be anything from ethernet to P2P microwave to satcoms to mobile radio to cellular to SDH/PDH, supported applications/systems will keep you forever learning, work locations can be pretty varied. While the industry generally struggles for staff, breaking in can be tough, but I think so long as you’re a straight shooter and willing to learn you’re generally fine. People transition in from IT all the time.
I’ll have to look into it, thanks for the tip!
I started a tiny bit before you, but close enough that we’d probably be considered the same cohort so to speak. My enthusiasm has largely waned, for sure.
For me AI and general fads don’t play a big part in how I feel.
Don’t crucify me, but for me it’s a vocal (and seemingly large) part of the tech community itself that I’m burned out on. As a professional in tech, it’s literally soul crushing to sit in front of a computer screen all day long. Yes, that’s oversimplification, but being stuck indoors, mostly sitting in front of monitors or sitting in meetings, just has destroyed my mental health. But, it’s the sterile corporate mind games and managers and project managers and crabs in a bucket mentality amongst developers that really act like a wooden stake to the heart.
Even after all that, I still had/have some tech related hobbies, and those same personalities are so off putting that I had to set them aside. Granted, the whole sitting in front of a screen in my “off hours” when I could be up, out and about, doing things is also a huge factor.
Won’t get into the job aspect of things too much, but as an example from my hobbies: I’m so tired of people who feel compelled to yuck others’ yum. I’m using the wrong version of Linux. Why would anybody ever choose X library when Y exists? Oh, you did something with AI, why do you hate humanity?
So, basically I’m tired of “you people” (not all of you, some of you, maybe even most of you are a blessing) in addition to the soul crushing aspect of being in front of a screen all day is what’s killed my enthusiasm.
Same. :/
I try to be as low tech as possible now. Most tech these days feels like it’s trying to exploit me in every way it can.
Let me give an example that matches my own discouragement and might also explain yours.
In the middle of last century, the woodworking industry that created fine furniture started experiencing a shift. Due to the sudden explosion of wages and wealth and population in the late 40s to 70s, products had to be made faster and cheaper.
One method was to lower the quality of inputs. Plywood instead of hardwood. Then fiberboard/chipboard instead of plywood.
We see the same system in play now, with AI automation and it’s gratuitous hallucinations. It is essentially garbage materials in order to save time and money.
But another method was also in automating the work. Whereas before craftsmen used hand planes and chisels, newer craftsmen used electric shapers and planers. And later, CNC machines stepped in to produce delicate and complicated designs in a fraction of the time - and frequently even more precisely and more cleanly - than anyone with a carving chisel could do.
And that is the part which is NOT being effectively duplicated in IT.
Sure, AI can automate the work, but instead of maintaining quality, said quality of work is also taking a nosedive in tandem with the quality of materials.
And that is what is discouraging me six ways to Sunday. It’s garbage on both sides of the coin, and not just one. There is no part of the equation in which I can still take pride in. It’s all depressive, disgusting slop that I would be ashamed to put my name to.
One method was to lower the quality of inputs. Plywood instead of hardwood. Then fiberboard/chipboard instead of plywood.
In fairness, hardwood is in limited supply. It takes a long time to produce, is expensive to harvest correctly, and typically means demolishing old growth forests to obtain. The “lower quality” products definitely have their trade-offs, but a lot of the quality issues are resolved through engineering improvements and materials sciences.
I would argue the real downside of lower quality inputs is the advent of “disposable” furniture (the IKEA brand crap most notably). Stuff that could have been designed to last, but isn’t, and ends up in landfills after moving day as a result. Rather than a savings yield, what you get is a waste surplus.
And later, CNC machines stepped in to produce delicate and complicated designs in a fraction of the time - and frequently even more precisely and more cleanly - than anyone with a carving chisel could do.
And that is the part which is NOT being effectively duplicated in IT.
Lolwhut? We’ve come so far even in the last ten years, in terms of IDEs, deployment pipelines, and automated unit testing.
Humans are the CNC machines in your analogy here. Basically we are left to clean up after the sloppy material inputs to get reasonable outputs. It’s just that techbros don’t believe that is (or at least will ultimately be) necessary and that AI can do this step.
The jury is already in on current tech (techbros are wrong), and still out on coming tech in this space, but it seems very unlikely (past experience with tech bros says they are hype machines and full of shit).
So what we land on with AI acting as the CNC is this pseudo facade where the furniture it cranks out looking OK from a distance, up close it’s pretty garbage but while everyone is starting (or forced) to sit on the chairs, it looks like they aren’t really load bearing…
now… apply this to IT, Medical, Financial, Military and any other serious application and you don’t have to wonder why people are concerned anymore.
I disagree with humans being the CNC machines. In both cases, humans instruct the technology to create the designs, but it is the machine which is digging into the product to create the visual patterns.
Sure, AI can automate the work, but instead of maintaining quality, said quality of work is also taking a nosedive in tandem with the quality of materials.
Knuth wrote about AI solving one of his 30 year old problems:
https://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/papers/claude-cycles.pdf
So it can be good in the right hands.
