How Big Tech Turned Work into a Religion
kqed.org
kqed.org
My experience with this culture is that it is more cult than religion. You are expected to live for the work, give your all for the work, and love the work above all things. If you value anything above work—for example, time with your children—then you are not worthy of the work. In fact, you have no worth at all. Your free time should be spent studying for the work. You should sleep at the office with your coworkers over the weekend in “voluntary” hackathons to make the work closer to completion.
Most importantly, if you suggest that the work should maybe not be the only thing in your life, you are not worthy of the work and you should feel shame. If you don’t, your code family will help you to feel it.
Obviously I had some bad experiences, but I know that I’m not alone. I wonder honestly if anyone interviewing Silicon Valley tech people would have a chance at an honest, healthy assessment of work/life balance.
Finding value in what you do is fine, it’s healthy, it’s important; I just don’t think the Silicon Valley culture is one anyone should be emulating. It’s ok to go to work because it’s a means to an end.
“Don’t you want us to succeed?”
“What do you mean you’re working too hard? Steve is really counting on you to get this done, and Carol has been working late nights for a month. You don’t want to let them down do you?”
“We need this new technology to succeed, you’re so smart that I’m sure you can figure it out over the weekend.”
It’s all bullshit, but there is a method to all of it. I fell victim to it and so did many others that I know. Honestly, if it wasn’t for my family I would probably still be suckered in, but when I no longer had time to be a father anymore it gave me a reality check.
(1) Leave the company. There are plenty of companies that don't do this. Just keep changing jobs till you find one
(2) Make sure you defensively program to keep yourself out of emergencies. That means doing your work on time, and if you're not consistently capable of that, then waiting before taking on more work.
I'm not saying be a social pariah. Just introspect once in a while and adjust from there.
"A company" is probably the wrong venue to pursue it, when it must be pursued. I think we have a lot of people like this right now because we encourage, praise and reward this behavior. But I don't think we should generally want people to burn their lives into pursuits in this way, and so should consider it at least uncouth, if not exactly morally wrong.
> It’s ok to go to work because it’s a means to an end.
Sure, that should be okay. But if someone wants to spend their free time studying, should that not be allowed? Should they be passed up for promotion because of it? Should your “code family” help you feel shame for it?
It’s not easy to strike a good balance between those who do seek self-realization in work and those who see it as a means to an end. Instead of having these two groups fight it out in every workplace I think society should provide opportunities for both. (But you can’t complain if those that prioritize work over everything else have more interesting and rewarding careers.)
It's a race to the bottom. Sure that one guy with no friends or family has nowhere else to go, so he doesn't care, but if he gets rewarded for it, everyone else gets dragged in and we've decided that long hours aren't productive anyway, and certainly don't replace the time spent with friends and family.
Taking risks is another, more extreme, example. What if someone has terminal cancer or just doesn't care if he lives? There's probably many jobs they can do faster since they're not trying particular hard to stay alive.
It's maybe harder to see the problem when someone is super keen on their work, but I think we'd all be better off if they channelled that energy into something else of equal mental stimulation separate from their work.
If you value other things over work but are incapable of making that choice if others are rewarded for hard work, then that’s your problem. Seek therapy or something.
Please dont mess up the lives of people who live in the real world for something that barely works in theory.
Again: If you can’t make your life choices in line with your values if there are incentives for hard work, then that’s your problem.
Btw, some contrarian critics on her book, would love to hear from HN too: https://www.amazon.com/Work-Pray-Code-Becomes-Religion/dp/06...
From the wiki:
Tang ping (Chinese: 躺平; pinyin: tǎng píng; lit. 'lying flat') is a lifestyle and social protest movement in China beginning in April 2021. It is a rejection of societal pressures to overwork, such as in the 996 working hour system, which is often regarded as a rat race with ever diminishing returns. Those who participate in tang ping instead choose to "lie down flat and get over the beatings" via a low-desire, more indifferent attitude towards life.
Without doing so, corporations and capitalism will squeeze workers until there’s nothing left, for the benefit of the shareholders.
(BTW, you’ll make $55k a year as senior engineer. But that’s worth it, right?)
Looking at a sole metric instead of quality of life holistically leads to suboptimal optimization. Total comp in the US is only good for two things: living okay in a dystopian hellscape or aggregating wealth as part of an exit strategy.
Low and behold, that shit works.
Yes, to some extent. And I think that’s fine.