Post by @mayintoronto@beige.party

2026-08-08 22:17 UTC

@Amgine@mamot.fr I don't agree with the primary thesis of the article. There were always workaholics. But the people who desired and demanded fulfillment from the work: it was always about a celebration of being great at our craft, and the societally meaningful output at the end of the day from that craft. Software was cool because you could build tools that make certain complex or undesirable tasks simpler, or easier to tackle. The conflict has always existed between building the right tools that solve problems for the customer (buyer and user) against the extractive growth at all cost model, exacerbated by the impossible growth needed to sustain the VC/PE model of endless exits... until your company gets acquired by a megacorp where it goes to die. That was always there. Even the people who loved this work, the goal was always to retire from the capitalistic system early so they can build their own thing on their retirement goat farm. It's just that now, the working conditions are so much worse. The craft feels less like the craft that made this work worthwhile. We have to cope with so much more slop in every direction. We're watching our counterparts throw out basic foundations of good software to adopt AI. Salaries have gone down and retirement is further than ever. Rent and the costs of living extract so much from us that even our relatively cushy salaries now feel like the average middle class living. This has nothing to do with "knowledge work", and everything to do with the broken social contract across every element of society by the ultra rich. And more than ever, tech workers are wondering if their new lower salaries and reduced job security are worth this bullshit.

Replies (4)

@gatesvp@mstdn.ca 2026-08-09 09:23

@mayintoronto@beige.party @Amgine@mamot.fr I am with May on this one. This is the broken social contract. Doubled down with the failed state of modern capitalism. North America is filled with really bad companies and a dead end social contract. That man on the train has got to eat, so he'll fill out the TPS Reports, but when that's done, he's done. It's time to knit. Is this some weird "knowledge worker" transition? No, it's just the new reality. Is filling out TPS Reports going to post for him to have a home? Raise a family? Retire? Probably not. Is it going to get him a promotion? Probably not, everyone is laying off now.Is it going to feed him and part for a ball of yarn? Sure. So that's what you do. We can differentiate "Engineers" from "Knowledge Workers", but they're seeing similar stuff too. The career ladder has stopped growing. The robots are writing code with lots of bugs, but management actively doesn't care. Entire projects of code are being generated from half-baked CEO prompts... /1

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@irene@discuss.systems 2026-08-08 23:37

@mayintoronto@beige.party @Amgine@mamot.fr yeah I think there’s a difference between knowledge workers and engineers that isn’t being distinguished here. There have always been people who push spreadsheets and PowerPoints but there are also the people that design the airplane wings and do the logistics that go into making sure all the parts of a car show up at the assembly plant at the right time and magically fit together. Unfortunately, the McKinsey consultants have decided that outsourcing the actual building of things is more “efficient” because they can’t differentiate between the spectacle and the substance. 🤦‍♀️

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@dashlion@mastodon.au 2026-08-09 10:45

You nailed it @mayintoronto@beige.party

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@uxMark@cosocial.ca 2026-08-09 13:38

@mayintoronto@beige.party @Amgine@mamot.fr I was convinced by Dan Pink in his book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. The three factors that matter are: 1. Autonomy: control over how I do my work 2. Mastery: growth and improvement in my skills 3. Purpose: doing something for a higher cause I’d argue that more and more software people have realized that the third one was a mirage in many jobs/companies, even the once biggest and most desirable “Don’t Be Evil” place.

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