Comment by nunez | Hacker News Reader

Comment by nunez | Hacker News Reader

Honestly, /r/experienceddevs has a little bit of /r/antiwork vibes too.

I created a post about making time for side projects some time ago (link: https://old.reddit.com/r/ExperiencedDevs/comments/piioin/how...)

Some of the top rated comments as of 2021-11-02:

- "I don't do side projects. Once I started working professionally, they stopped"

- "I don't. I code enough during work hours."

- "I try to support anti work activism so that someday people can spend their life on the things they feel are important in the world and not forced to sell most of their best years."

Lots of posts there had this sort of vibe.

Part of me feels bad that so many people hate their jobs (or work in places that treat their employees like dirt). It's really hard to talk about work (even when going through a rough patch) amongst others since I really like what I do.

But another part of me isn't okay with a world in which the vast majority of people do nothing (or do something that doesn't really produce value) while forcing higher-income people (like many of us, myself included) to fund that lifestyle.

"But another part of me isn't okay with a world in which the vast majority of people do nothing (or do something that doesn't really produce value) while forcing higher-income people (like many of us, myself included) to fund that lifestyle."

But I feel it is the other way around really. Low income people support the lifestyle of all us "highly educated".

I feel the biggest amount of us programmers / managers are really creating little value, but are nonetheless rewarded by a vast institution of governments and corporations.

>But another part of me isn't okay with a world in which the vast majority of people do nothing (or do something that doesn't really produce value) while forcing higher-income people (like many of us, myself included) to fund that lifestyle.

You're talking about the owner class here, right? Not the working class?

>But another part of me isn't okay with a world in which the vast majority of people do nothing (or do something that doesn't really produce value) while forcing higher-income people (like many of us, myself included) to fund that lifestyle.

You fundamentally misunderstand the subreddit if you think this is about weflare.

This is about being paid your value, being treated fairly and upholding your rights. The subreddit is more capitalist than most American companies these days that instead of actually paying higher wages to find labor, are actively trying to undermine it instead.

>But another part of me isn't okay with a world in which the vast majority of people do nothing (or do something that doesn't really produce value) while forcing higher-income people (like many of us, myself included) to fund that lifestyle.

But in this hypothetical welfare future, nobody forces you. You're free to collect your check and do nothing, like everyone else. Your reward for contributing value is, as you say, higher income. That seems perfectly fair to me.

And if enough farmers decide they want to just collect their check, either someone is going to need to be forced or we all starve.

I’m all for the nobody-needs-to-work future, but we’re not going to get there without Star Trek style energy and replicators.

Why is stick more important than carrot? Make the pay high enough and people will do anything.

I wish it were easier to just contribute to projects that help humanity instead of 99% of my employment opportunities being to spend 60hrs/week inventing new ways to help my boss become a gatekeeper/middleman.

> But another part of me isn't okay with a world in which the vast majority of people do nothing (or do something that doesn't really produce value) while forcing higher-income people (like many of us, myself included) to fund that lifestyle.

Agreed, which is why a lot of us minimum wage workers criticize people like Elon Musk who spend 40 hrs on Twitter and going to fancy dinners or SNL or whatever while claiming he works 80 hrs a week.

It would be great if we weren't all forced to work to subsidize their hedonistic lifestyles.

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