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Comment by codeTired | Hacker News Reader

I love programming but can’t drink the koolaid.

I haven’t found a company yet that meets my energy. All I get is people “excited” to be working for their company because they are “changing” the world. It’s marketing vomit.

To be honest I would prefer to have few million dollars in investments and not to work for anyone at all. No arbitrary deadlines, no corporate ladder, no politics.

I just want to write some code, build some servers and play with things. Maybe make something that benefits people in general.

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> It’s marketing vomit.

An understatement. Do these people actually believe in it ? Or are they just faking it because one has to adhere to company's value ?

Most people are faking it. Being able to spend your time on something that both significantly improves humanity and pays the bills is a rare opportunity.

I don't think that's really true (though the claim might be too general to even evaluate on its merits). The same way that I don't believe most religious leaders are secretly atheists.

I dunno I'm an atheist and I've thought about starting my own cult occasionally :)

I've always wondered what substances people are using, the more that they have to touch that stuff. When I was more naive and inexperienced, I was blind to this, and I also judged it.

Nowadays, as long as the marketers are taking care of it, and they aren't ruining their health, I don't care what they're taking as long as it's not meth.

I always wonder this. I think many people actually believe the bullshit because they aren't intellectually curious and have spent no time exploring how other organizations might work. This becomes a problem for software engineering because they have nothing to draw on other than their past work. If they haven't worked anywhere other than your current employer, and your currently employer is a dumpster fire, they are going to continue to repeat bad patterns.

In a company whose business is software-mediated (which is basically all businesses these days), there are a bunch of people who are excited to be part of the journey… and a bunch of tech people who have the power to actually do things because their hands are on the keyboard and they can make the business change.

I know which group I would rather be part of.

Given that being paid to do things is going to involve working for some sort of business, I’d rather be in software development for such a business than in marketing or sales or HR or operational support…

> To be honest I would prefer to have few million dollars in investments and not to work for anyone at all.

This is possible, especially on a tech salary. Have you heard of the FIRE movement?

Of course I have. I do make good money but not $500k.

I’m hoping to increase my net worth by few millions in the next 10 years. Getting close to my first one.

I might grind and go for a big tech job, but it needs to be remote.

I then plan on either working an extremely laid back job where I put in 10 hours a week and collect a salary without giving much fucks or doing something exciting that might not pay so much.

Maybe I will find something along the way that excites me.

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