Starting to think software engineers and business executives are just about the worst thing to happen to this planet in a long time!
Not the tech company executives making billions, with a b.
Not Wall Street, that demands infinite, ever-increasing growth.
Software engineers.
Right.
To be fair, they did include this group. I’m also not sure the number-goes-up investors are “the” problem (perhaps “a” problem) or if they’re just acting rationally in an inflationary economy, which does seem to be a problem with far-reaching consequences.
But I agree that the problem is pretty far removed from the workers working for a paycheck, regardless of what they do; someone is paying them to do it, maybe criticize that first.
It soured me on all of it in a big way.
The combination of being sure they know how the world works (like a business of course), surrounding themselves with sycophants, and being smart enough to convince themselves of anything which makes them get high off the smell of their own farts, leads to terrible garbage like our current administration.
The damage has been caused by media and career politicians’ use of such. You’re right that they’re not overtly dangerous in office (doing crazy things means you don’t get re-elected) but that just makes the negative effects of their actions less obvious, not less severe.
> people whose entire career is [dedicated] to public service
I accept this framing for the career administrators who have (or had) a job to do. A person who makes a career out of repeatedly being elected to public leadership positions might fall under that umbrella but seems to have a higher propensity for dishonest behavior. Put another way: a career politician is not necessarily a career civil servant, there just happens to be some overlap.
I am not sure what circles you operate but I have never heard anyone at the layman level state any sort of distrust of software engineers.
End of the day, they’re laborers and they have no choice on what is being built. It’s not like most people in software are making enough to own a home in SV on their own anyway. It’s still a dual (tech) income (or big windfall) market.
Which is by itself a moral (immoral?) stance, saying that you don't have problems doing all kinds of evil stuff as long as the money is good.
the oil companies are still doing the worst, along with the oil burners like car and plane operators.
ai on nuclear or solar isnt doing much bad for the planet