Comment by protonimitate | Hacker News Reader

Comment by protonimitate | Hacker News Reader

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I really disagree with this point of view. I don't think anyone should feel indebted to their circumstance/employer just because there are others out there without the same opportunities.

Is it entitlement? Maybe. But isn't it also entitlement for companies to try to squeeze the maximum amount of productivity out of employees for the least amount of compensation? Why can't they see that there are less fortunate companies that can't afford to bring on the most productive workers?

If OP wants a low stakes job to coast to retirement in - more power to them. The only "issue" I see is if OP intentionally deceives their immediate team/coworkers and is off-loading their commitments while reaping the benefits.

> It goes completely against the idea of progress and works against any form of entrepreneurial spirit

Not everyone cares about these as values. Some people just want to have a decent life and spend time thinking about things other than work. I don't see why they should uphold these values just because others don't have the opportunity to.

> Some people just want to have a decent life and spend time thinking about things other than work.

A few years ago when the first rumblings of "everyone is an entrepreneur" and "be your own brand" and all that stuff with books I read a book called Life, Inc, by Douglas Rushkoff. It helped me realize that the people who thought that living your life like you are corporation comes from a particular worldview that deifies people like Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and the like. It equates that view of life as the best, nay only, way to live and succeed.

Personally, I love programming, and I love other activities. I tolerate some corporatization of myself for programming because it pays the bills. I would never want to be an entrepreneur or run a company. I hate doing all the other stuff that running a business requires.

Not that love being a wage slave, but that I have better things to do with my life than sell my skills.

I think it's fine for one person to not uphold these values, but I remember coming to hackernews because I was excited about progress. Now it seems like self interest has taken over as the primary value.

Maybe it’s the aggregate cynicism of seeing all that “progress” amount to little else than hype, shifting market share from older giants in every sector to new exciting new startups that almost immediately become just as bad as the old giants or in many cases worse. Ten years ago I also couldn’t wait for my plot of land on Mars. 2021-Me Cannot imagine being truly inspired by a software company.

I can see how the hype not matching up with reality leads to cynicism. At the same time, I believe cynicism is worth fighting because we have 50 or more years ahead of us while we are alive to make progress, and just because the last 30 years of hypercapitalism has led to a lot of pain doesn't mean we should throw up our hands and despair.

It seems to me you mistook one kind of self-interest for a labor toward progress. And you still do, for that matter.

You’re gonna have to unpack that quite a bit more for me to understand what you are trying to say

Hacker News has always been about self-interest.

I think you're really reaching with that analogy. No, that's not entitlement - that's capitalism. Compensation is always a two-way agreement between the employee and employer - you're never doing a job that you didn't agree to do. If you agree to it, that means you consider the compensation worth the effort.

On the other hand, for someone to accept a job and then go to work with the intention of being as unproductive as possible - that's entitlement, and that word is putting it lightly. A century ago they would've called it "shameful" or "dishonorable", but nowadays such behaviour is excused with a kind of pseudo-marxist "stick-it-to-the-man" vibe. However, when you boil it down, it's just a bullshit excuse for laziness and dishonesty.

I think I replied to the wrong comment somehow lol, just re-read this and can't see how my comment relates to the parent-comment. Don't recall what I was responding to either.

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