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Comment by 121789 | Hacker News Reader

I think people are rightfully wary about massive employment changes that could have significant negative consequences. I see a slow shift from treating ICs like people with differentiated skillsets to undifferentiated drones. I think that rarely works out for the employee.

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"I see a slow shift from treating ICs like people with differentiated skillsets to undifferentiated drones. I think that rarely works out for the employee."

I see it as the opposite. If an employer goes from mandating everyone be in office all the time, to allowing ICs to have a choice, doesn't that treat them less like an undifferentiated drone and acknowledge that some people work better WFH and others don't, or that for some projects you might want to be away from the office for extended periods of time?

> to allowing ICs to have a choice, doesn't that treat them less like an undifferentiated drone...?

No, on aggregate it will be the opposite, I think. Each dev will be treated more like an API--requirements go in and products come out. When the entire country is your labor pool rather than a select population close to your office, that's easier.

Whose writing the design docs and the requirements then?

What’s so bad about being treated as an interchangeable ‘drone’? Let’s face it, for most of us, it’s true. If we weren’t there doing that particular jira, someone else would be. Similarly, the company I work at is pretty interchangeable for me. If I wasn’t at x company, I’d be at y company doing almost identical work. As long as you work to live, not live to work, it’s not really that threatening being ‘a cog in the machine’. In fact it’s pretty relaxing, predictable and an easy way to earn money.

Yeah, I think as employees this is key. The ability to go to office makes you stand out as a human being and not as a commodity remote black box problem solver. Fuck, just look at investment bankers why do you think they fly and see their customers face to face even at this lockdown times? Their financial models and ideas are the same but the human element of trust and communication. I'm an early career stage software engineer and things like this shift to remote work make me uneasy about the viability of software as a career for me. In other fields, the more experience you get the less of a commodity you're treated as, here it sometimes feels as if relevance if pretty much out of our control, the more experience you have in a focused area the more you are seen as a tool for a particular job I'd say instead of a generalist.

Well since you're in early stage in your career, if being a black box, a replacable commodity makes you feel uneasy, you'd be better off exploring alternative satisfying career path while not getting too invested in tech, time wise. Futher down the road you'll see yourself be more a commodity, more burn out, more kids replacing your job with newer skillset at lower salaries.

If the human touch is important to you, there are a lot of careers that you will thrive at, especially with your tech skills that you can apply almost anywhere.

Ahh, I once worked for Google too.

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