Part of it that the commenters so far missed is that to do anything about climate change will affect profits for the oil industry and cause corporations aplenty to have to come up with new manufacturing materials and processes. It also means consuming less. The solutions are seen as a threat to owners of capital who will fight until the earth is in flames to do anything about it. Our politicians and many media sources are owned by these people.
The fact that it might query a firmware update if you’re not careful to never allow it to communicate outward is enough of a risk. I don’t want my appliances querying firmware updates that might brick the unit or give engineers excuses too not get it right the first time. I’ve seen what product owners do when there are known bugs but they want to ship because the user can just update later.
I think there is genuine burnout. Also it makes sense that the more grizzled on HN have lived long enough to see the fruits of the labor, perhaps just tangentially, and what it has wrought. Coupled with the industry treating its workers pretty poorly right now and shattering all illusions, it makes sense this sentiment is rising.
Have you read anything by Mark Fisher? He spoke about capitalism absorbing all resistance which makes it almost impossible to ever escape from. Which is what you’re saying I think. Resistance becomes the next market and works through the same economic systems it’s attempting to resist.
Having seen the almost rabid and fearful reactions of product owners first hand around forcing AI into every product, it’s because all these companies are in panic mode. Many of these folks are not thinking clearly and have no idea what they’re doing. They don’t think they have time to think it through. Doing something is better than nothing. It’s all theatre for their investors coupled with a fear of being seen as falling behind. Nobody is going to have a measured and well thought through approach when they’re being pressured from above to get in line and add AI in any way. The top execs have no ideas, they just want AI. You’re not even allowed to say it’s a bad idea in a lot of bigger companies. Get in line or get a new job. At some point this period will pass and it will be pretty embarrassing for some folks.
By playable do you just mean new content? It will be perfectly playable in 10 years just like all the other classic CRPGs. It would be amazing if modding in content was easy like NWN, if that’s what you mean, because it obviously isn’t. It does seem like such a waste. I’m in a second replay and it’s enjoyable but just so long and will become more repetitive. There are certain sections in Act I that I can’t see myself enjoying a third time at all. Some smaller modules would be amazing. I think the closest thing to that will be Solasta II in the modern era.
“Early access… usually happens just 1–2 years before release.”
I had a good laugh at this. So many titles have taken money and silently failed or seem to figure they can stay in early access indefinitely. On the plus side early access seems useful to smaller devs that are close to finishing but need a bit more cash and free QA. But is also a bit of a scam the way is it’s used for many others unfortunately. Find a genre with a passionate fanbase, make a prototype, collect some cash and fade away.
Any way, not to suggest it’s a bad writeup as I enjoyed reading about the author's experiences.
Hiding what you’re talking about with no actual examples so you can spring a gotcha is just dumb, sorry. This is how the far right works generally online.
I’ve witnessed more people having breakdowns in this wonderfully productive world our glorious tech leaders are creating from overwork than at any other time in my career. And they’re all using AI extensively and are smart people. It turns out laying off team after team still leaves a lot of work to do and they’re using constant threats to keep people working endless nights and weekends to up the pieces from the endless chaos they are causing. Their calculations for how productive AI makes people is completely wrong.
Tech just feels sinister right now and without any ounce of shame or self reflection.
AI generative output seems to have similar output to when you flood a creative field with capital and demand returns off a flourishing subgenre. A lot of mediocrity from trying to simulate that magic with a great lack of inspiration.
What’s interesting about this take, and I don’t disagree with the sentiment, is watching Apple get skewered by fumbling AI integration on the iPhone. That’s obviously of their own doing since they turned on their marketing machine on full blast and made promises. But some users seemed really disappointed in their lack of AI features compared to Android. I don’t think anyone would be disappointed for removal of Clippy.
That’s not FIRE. FIRE is keep your tech job, live very frugaly, invest, maybe make some other passive income, then actually retire. OP is rather focusing on getting out of tech to do something else but it is still going to be work. Maybe a lot of work. They’re downsizing lifestyle because they’re also downsizing their pay.
Well a lot of those folks got themselves trapped in a mortgage possibly with a family. I see it all the time here in the Bay. People think they’re on top of the world, buy a house, then start to have second thoughts. Then they’re trapped and will lose out by selling and downsizing. They don’t want to do that, so complain and stick with their job fearing layoffs and hating life.
Well this is a new angle for MAGA isn’t it? Stop questioning him as he’s a stable genius with systems thinking. Nice try, but you’re going to have to own that one with a full explanation to get anywhere with it.
It blows my mind people feeling mistreated at X FAANG company just to go to Y FAANG company and expect any better treatment. They are all the same at this point. At least the unhinged career ladder climbers on Blind aren’t kidding themselves.
DnD 5e seems like it’s already on the generic rules side of things and gives DMs a lot of room for interpretation. That’s why the railgun seems silly. “I guess that’d be a persuasion or performance check, your pick”, etc.
Not exactly tabletop, but this is the issue I have with every Pathfinder build I see for Wrath of the Righteous. Everyone dips into these nonsensical combinations to get a better armor rating, etc. So then you get a Paladin that decided to become a witch for part of the campaign for “reasons”. You can roleplay something, sure, but it’s rather forced by the numbers.
That’s just not true. I’ve been lifting heavy for many years and have had my share of injuries, sure. But they heal. My body feels great. I’m almost 50 and I have no back pain, or other pains I see people constantly complaining about that are near my age and don’t do any resistance training. The only reason I injured myself is because I overreached. So that’s in ones control. I tend to overdo it from time to time if I’m trying to hit a goal. But nobody needs to push that hard and there are many ways to avoid it.
The fact is resistance training is vital for able bodied folks to avoid feeling pain later. And of course it has many other benefits than that. Even just pulling on some resistance bands can save your back and shoulders and the chance of injury there is minuscule.