Although trained in physics, I worked in the computing industry with pride and purpose for over 40 years.
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Although trained in physics, I worked in the computing industry with pride and purpose for over 40 years. And now I can do nothing but sit back and watch it destroy itself for no valid reason beyond hubris (if I'm being charitable).
Ineffable sadness watching something I once loved deliberately lose its soul.
@robpike after many years deliberating what mattered to me and how to attempt to live as ethically as possible under capitalism I found out that the best way was to support local artists.
And now I am afraid they're trying to scam me with the AIgen bullshit.Problem is I've been only 5 years on this position. And 2 of those have been under unnecessary stress.
The big corpos haven really never been as burnable as today. -
But hey, the industry has spoken. Who am I to question it?
@robpike you, and others like you, are exactly the ones to question it, gramps. You, and the academics and the ethicists and professors and unions and legislators.
And we should listen.
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@robpike A profound grief I feel.
I retired this year, creating considerable financial stress, but I just don't want to be associated with this trade these days.
And yes, it's been coming for some time, and the LLM craze isn't really the root cause. For me, at least, it's the tipping point.
Anyway. Just a note to say that I feel your pain. About the only bright side I can offer: we lived through the golden age of computing, created amazing things, found many friends, and felt great joy.
@GeePawHill @robpike I share similar feelings. I don't feel like retiring, but I don't want anything to do with any of this. Maybe I did something that mattered to someone at one time, but who knows now?
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Although trained in physics, I worked in the computing industry with pride and purpose for over 40 years. And now I can do nothing but sit back and watch it destroy itself for no valid reason beyond hubris (if I'm being charitable).
Ineffable sadness watching something I once loved deliberately lose its soul.
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Although trained in physics, I worked in the computing industry with pride and purpose for over 40 years. And now I can do nothing but sit back and watch it destroy itself for no valid reason beyond hubris (if I'm being charitable).
Ineffable sadness watching something I once loved deliberately lose its soul.
@robpike Didn’t expect to read from the very Rob Pike here on Mastodon on my way to bed. Let’s say I am going to sleep much better now. Always nice to see some of the OGs having their head screwed right on. Bless you.
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Although trained in physics, I worked in the computing industry with pride and purpose for over 40 years. And now I can do nothing but sit back and watch it destroy itself for no valid reason beyond hubris (if I'm being charitable).
Ineffable sadness watching something I once loved deliberately lose its soul.
* buildings collapse, websites fall, forums die, qr codes deployed, bots run rampant
*Meanwhile, below, in TOR, yggdrasil and i2p.
"Can you keep it down up there?!"
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But hey, the industry has spoken. Who am I to question it?
@robpike I cannot express how happy I am that you are on the same side here as I am .. and how sorry I am for you to suffer through this as well
I'm in this industry not nearly as long, but also just always hoped it would lead to the betterment of humanity and not ... this
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I spent my time trying to make it better. Not just write code, but find better or at least different ways to do so. Simpler, cleaner, more general, more comprehensible.
What's happening today is a complete repudiation of everything I was trying to achieve.
@robpike I just got into the industry after it being my hobby since I could teach myself, I relate to this so hard.
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@robpike This is the feeling I had in the 90s dropping out of journalism school because everything had been so debased by 24 hour news channels managing to devote 20 of those hours to OJ Simpson's trial for months on end, and nearly every other news source including NPR joining the frenzy.
So then I went to become a full time computer geek and, well, you know.
@linuxandyarn oh hi, same story here
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Although trained in physics, I worked in the computing industry with pride and purpose for over 40 years. And now I can do nothing but sit back and watch it destroy itself for no valid reason beyond hubris (if I'm being charitable).
Ineffable sadness watching something I once loved deliberately lose its soul.
@robpike yup
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@robpike
Just like democracy: if the billionaires don't want it, who are we to complain?If the world survived Perl, VBA, CORBA, SGML/XML, and Code Generation from UML, it can survive this.
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Although trained in physics, I worked in the computing industry with pride and purpose for over 40 years. And now I can do nothing but sit back and watch it destroy itself for no valid reason beyond hubris (if I'm being charitable).
Ineffable sadness watching something I once loved deliberately lose its soul.
brother.
But first, it burned me out. -
Although trained in physics, I worked in the computing industry with pride and purpose for over 40 years. And now I can do nothing but sit back and watch it destroy itself for no valid reason beyond hubris (if I'm being charitable).
Ineffable sadness watching something I once loved deliberately lose its soul.
Given your experience, how does this compare for you to the dot com boom? To me it seems like a similar combination of investors not wanting to miss out and not really understanding the thing and marketing departments happy to agree to all requests resulting in a big bubble about to pop. I'm anticipating in five or ten years there will still be LLM tools helping in what manner they actually can, the same way we still use websites after the dotcom crash, but all of the shenanigans will have collapsed under the weight of their impossibility.
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But hey, the industry has spoken. Who am I to question it?
@robpike The counter revolution is underway. Those of us who still remember how computers can be playgrounds of exploration unto themselves, and not just means to extraction and rent seeking, will have had our fill of the contradictions, doublespeak, and outright lies. The kids with their weird hair and 9front on their ThinkPads grow relentlessly restless. Those that value autonomy, joy, artistry, and craftsmanship, will ultimately win. Far too much of our collective future is at stake.
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I spent my time trying to make it better. Not just write code, but find better or at least different ways to do so. Simpler, cleaner, more general, more comprehensible.
What's happening today is a complete repudiation of everything I was trying to achieve.
@robpike lots of us appreciate your work a great deal, and still believe in those principles, despite the folly that the wider industry has decided to chase. I feel a bit adrift in unfamiliar and hostile seas but at least it’s good to hear a familiar voice of reason over the squall
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Although trained in physics, I worked in the computing industry with pride and purpose for over 40 years. And now I can do nothing but sit back and watch it destroy itself for no valid reason beyond hubris (if I'm being charitable).
Ineffable sadness watching something I once loved deliberately lose its soul.
Same. I think this is exactly why a lot of the 'retro computing' channels have gazillions of viewers these days.
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Although trained in physics, I worked in the computing industry with pride and purpose for over 40 years. And now I can do nothing but sit back and watch it destroy itself for no valid reason beyond hubris (if I'm being charitable).
Ineffable sadness watching something I once loved deliberately lose its soul.
@robpike
Hall of Wisdom:
"worse is better", Richard P. Gabriel, 1989, techie.
"the worse, the better", Mariano Rajoy, 2017, prime minister.
"worse is the new better", John, 2022, electrician.
"sit back and watch it destroy itself", Rob Pike, 2026, retiree
wuhuuuu!!! -
But hey, the industry has spoken. Who am I to question it?
This is not "the industry".
It's a handful of power-hungry assholes ruining everything for everyone.
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@robpike The counter revolution is underway. Those of us who still remember how computers can be playgrounds of exploration unto themselves, and not just means to extraction and rent seeking, will have had our fill of the contradictions, doublespeak, and outright lies. The kids with their weird hair and 9front on their ThinkPads grow relentlessly restless. Those that value autonomy, joy, artistry, and craftsmanship, will ultimately win. Far too much of our collective future is at stake.
@xan @robpike I hope the seasoned veterans will start actively making IRL groups to teach even just the basics of how they can protect themselves, learn a bit, and become an active participant in their lives and not a passive victim.
Places like the fediverse are great but most of them outside the "geeks and gamers" have no clue this even exists. And if they do, it's an old nerds place with a high bar of entry.
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I spent my time trying to make it better. Not just write code, but find better or at least different ways to do so. Simpler, cleaner, more general, more comprehensible.
What's happening today is a complete repudiation of everything I was trying to achieve.
@robpike This resonates so strongly with me and makes me so sad. I spent much of the last 30 years writing and education people on how to write code to do graphics, animation, physics simulations, games, etc. And I feel the same as you just described. "Ineffable sadness".
