In progress
This lecture made me think a lot about the industry I am in, my degree, and my future.
The way I have been approaching jobs while in university was motivated by a few, simple factors. I needed the job to be flexible and part time, such that I could still perform well as a student. I think it is a reasonable approach and I feel content with these priorities, especially that I have had a freelancer contract, if I could call it that, with an agency since 2021, and that I have had occasional work from them during these times. This means that for me, the other parts did not really matter as much. What kind of work (as long as it matches my skillset), for what clients, how are the people in the team, do they care about the work… Also, I do not think I was in such a high position to be that picky about the jobs I get.
However, as I finish university, the next job I will find myself in will be chosen based on different factors. What goals do I support by being part of the future team? There is another conflict because I do want to work and learn from well-established engineers, and a very competent team is something I am looking for. From my experience, it is the best when you learn from other people, to see best practices in a real production environment
Startup culture is also a double-edged sword. I do not want to driven solely by raising revenue and VC money or whatever, despite the product. There is also the fact that the products developed at these companies usually interest with other industries - marketing, finance, etc.
However, you cannot also justify working for nothing, and there are already so, so many products out there. Some products are created because other, also technological products, introduce these issue. It’s already another topic to combat technological issues by creating technological solutions, but this is besides the point.
The point that the paper highlighted well, which reminded me of Neil Postman and his “The Surrender of Culture to Technology” lecture, is that before building something - a piece of software, a technical infrastructure, etc. - is it truly needed for it to exist?
- What is the problem to which a technology claims to be the solution?
- Whose problem is it?
- What new problems will be created as a result of solving an old one?
- Which people and institutions will be most harmed?
- What changes in language are being promoted?
- What shifts in economic and political power are likely to result?
- What alternative media might be made from a technology?
— The 7 Questions For Any Technological Idea by Neil Postman
I also liked the part where he mentioned the liberal view towards usage of technology. Does it really matter we have gender equality among the people who control drones and kill civilians?
There is also somewhat of a hypocrisy maybe on my part while I think about this. Let’s say I do not support corporations like Meta, Google, Amazon, but I do use React, Facebook’s open source framework, and my Gmail is holding basically the entirety of my digital life. (edit: I might switch to Proton Mail, I’m testing it out now) Secondly, given the requirements to get a job at such companies, this complain could be interpreted like that fable with the fox and the sour grapes. I do not have the skillset to pass the interviews lmao.
I was browsing on Bandcamp the other day. It is a platform for music artists to sell their digital albums, CDs, merch etc. directly. A huge part of the earnings goes directly to the artist, unlike Spotify and other music streaming platforms. Now, I do not know their internal politics, and I am sure for absolutely any company you research you will find some Reddit comment saying something bad about working there, but isn’t it cool to be part of such a project with such a mission? I also enjoy the design of the platform itself, it’s tasteful.