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Comment by tayo42 | Hacker News Reader

I'm always curious why people who don't care about work or tech spend time commenting on career sites and topics

Because they used to care.

Just because I am not happy with my employment situation doesn't mean I don't care about tech. I am privileged to even say that my job hasn't sucked all the joy out of building projects outside of work. None of this is a prerequisite for me ranting :)

Do you care about your users? If you care about tech, I'm sure you're as dissatisfied with the current state of broken and invasive software as the rest of us. I don't know the exact nature of your work, but don't you care about the experience of your clients or end-users?

Would you take a bullet for your clients and end-users?

Burning yourself out to patch over unsustainable working conditions is a slow bullet.

100%. I've been combating burnout over the last year or so. A saying that has stuck with me recently is "you don't need to set yourself on fire to make others warm." Trying to fix things by yourself in a massive bureaucracy is nigh impossible, so I've resigned myself to stop going the extra mile for the sake of the health and wellbeing of myself and my family.

Many smart people get bored and get all the joy sucked out of them when living and working under circumstances.

Some people enjoy the challenge and may compensate outside work hours, often doing overtime without compensation, that often implies less of a life outside of work or work concerns, promoting their personal branding, conferences, etc.

Just because these people exist and get rewarded does not mean their work environment is not predatory.

I like tech

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