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Comment by backtoyoujim | Hacker News Reader

This article reminds me of people that say the eagles could have dropped the ring into Mordor.

The corporate world has spent the better part of a century convincing the populace that when one doesn't work in cubes, "people" like artists, then they aren't really doing their share.

And now, suddenly, the corporate state wants those people to prioritize their value as resources to the corporatocracy.

Much like the eagles from LOTR, some people don't have any interest of your company, or IPO, or your disruption no matter how "valuable" they could be to some corporate bottom line.

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My doctoral thesis was on precisely the question of what role the Great Eagles could have played before and during the War of the Ring to deliver the One Ring to Mordor. It's not simple enough to say they were great beings who would have been corrupted by the ring, or they were not interested in the power of the ring, or even that the story would have ended in ten minutes and therefore they couldn't do it. There is a lot of research and discussion[1][2][3][4][5][6] of this open question.

[1]: http://www.sean-crist.com/personal/pages/eagles/index.html

[2]: https://lotr.fandom.com/wiki/Great_Eagles

[3]: https://www.polygon.com/lord-of-the-rings/22432394/eagles-lo...

[4]: https://www.reddit.com/r/FanTheories/comments/6nysuy/lotr_cl...

[5]: https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/2333/why-didnt-gan...

[6]: https://www.quora.com/Why-didnt-the-Eagles-fly-the-Ringbeare...

Only speaking for myself here, and not speaking as an artist, but I think a lot of companies foist a lowest-common-denominator incentive structure on everyone and then act surprised when they have difficulty with recruiting/retention. Not everyone wants the same thing out of work.

For example, I have a fundamental disconnect with the idea of corporate ladder climbing, and it makes me feel like a bit of an alien sometimes. It's not interesting to me, though I realize you need a certain amount of status to maintain some notion of autonomy. I'm not even talking about office politics per se; I just think the notion of "work X years and get Y title" feels empty to me. As I mentioned, I'm motivated more by autonomy than external perceptions of status.

I'm happy with work, but I've had to realize and accept this in myself, and learn ways of navigating a world where many concern themselves primarily with their own status.

Disclaimer: Not an artist myself but a friend of the writer, and a co-founder of MagicBell - the host of the blog.

Aren't there a lot of artists (just like there are lots of actors) who have a day job to pay the bills? If that job happens to be in tech (and pay well) that should ideally be of interest to many people. Not to everyone but surely to some I assume. They won't be invested in the IPO or disruption but they could be interested in doing their job well and making a good living. I have a lot of friends (not all artists) who are super smart but work for low pay at restaurants and I for one sure wish they could work at tech and make more money. I know for a fact many of them would want to.

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