I know a lot of people, in software and otherwise, who are feeling things along these lines.
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Tips I can give you from my experience as a musicial weirdo if you’re looking to redevelop a sense of intrinsic purpose and meaning:
Beware of leaning on extrinsic validation (winning a contest, getting a grant, getting a job) for your psychological well-being. Those things may be important for practical purposes, but psychologically they are all empty calories.
Three •good• sources of purpose and meaning in your work that can sustain you:
- your own sense of satisfaction in your work
- sharing work via meaningful, sustained human connections
- the sheer joy of making and doing@inthehands Process not product, yes, but how do you cultivate that sense of "sheer joy of making in doing"?
A "life hack" I've been trying is to make things _completely in secret_. Like you promise at the beginning that you aren't going to tell ANYONE about it.
Not only does this help you find the excitement of failing, which is the only way to play or learn, but it actually _trains_ your brain to realize, "Hey, no one saw this, no one told me it was good, and I still had a lot of fun and fulfillment making it"
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Tech jobs are highly cyclical and lots of the gen AI stuff is ridiculously overhyped, and I’m hopeful that the wheel will keep turning and the professional prospects of software developers will improve again…assuming human civilization survives, that is.
But what I said above applies regardless. We should all be doing this meaning-making work all the time, even in the best job markets. In fact, that work is a part of •making• human civilization survive.
@inthehands Currently out of work, and I've been struggling with this. On the one hand, I have a strong conviction that what I do matters, and will continue to matter, and is (among other things) a form of art. On the other hand, it's incredibly jarring for the economy to do such a rapid 180 on whether I have anything useful to offer, and it leaves me feeling like a leech on my partner's salary, wondering how long it's going to be before I can bring money to the household again. I think it's going to be a capital P Process to figure out how to carve out a niche in this broke new world.
Thanks for this thread, btw. It helps.
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Tips I can give you from my experience as a musicial weirdo if you’re looking to redevelop a sense of intrinsic purpose and meaning:
Beware of leaning on extrinsic validation (winning a contest, getting a grant, getting a job) for your psychological well-being. Those things may be important for practical purposes, but psychologically they are all empty calories.
Three •good• sources of purpose and meaning in your work that can sustain you:
- your own sense of satisfaction in your work
- sharing work via meaningful, sustained human connections
- the sheer joy of making and doing@inthehands this is great, thank you for sharing
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RE: https://thepit.social/@peter/116376219055579156
I know a lot of people, in software and otherwise, who are feeling things along these lines.
Hold on, whatever tools you’re using, just hold on to your sense of purpose and meaning. There are a lot of forces at work in this world that want to rob you of that. Your feeling of losing that is not recognition of some new fact of our reality; it is you experiencing a psychological weapon.
@inthehands So many people respond to this with "if I'm forced to use it I'm throwing my laptop into the sea." It's not the laptop's fault. It's not even the specific tech's fault. It's those who are forcing it on us no matter the cost because they either are the ones making profits on it or are the ones suckered by those making the profits.
Don't throw the laptops in the sea, throw the CEOs in the sea.
As a side note, LLMs absolutely utterly suck at being treated as a general assistant, but you know something they'd be pretty good at aping pretty well? Being a CEO. Too well. They'd almost perfectly match the CEO profile. To all you boards of directors out there, consider this: you don't have to pay a LLM.
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RE: https://thepit.social/@peter/116376219055579156
I know a lot of people, in software and otherwise, who are feeling things along these lines.
Hold on, whatever tools you’re using, just hold on to your sense of purpose and meaning. There are a lot of forces at work in this world that want to rob you of that. Your feeling of losing that is not recognition of some new fact of our reality; it is you experiencing a psychological weapon.
@inthehands This is why I live stream my coding, which I do without the use of LLMs. I love the thinking/design process AND the writing of the code. And while it might *seem* slow, so what? The journey is (mostly!) enjoyable and provides meaning and community for me.
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@inthehands This is why I live stream my coding, which I do without the use of LLMs. I love the thinking/design process AND the writing of the code. And while it might *seem* slow, so what? The journey is (mostly!) enjoyable and provides meaning and community for me.
@jitterted @inthehands
Similarly, this is why I "live blog" my coding, nearly every day. I love the craft itself."AI" should do the things we don't like to do, like take out the trash and clean the bathroom. Let people do the things they like to do.
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RE: https://thepit.social/@peter/116376219055579156
I know a lot of people, in software and otherwise, who are feeling things along these lines.
Hold on, whatever tools you’re using, just hold on to your sense of purpose and meaning. There are a lot of forces at work in this world that want to rob you of that. Your feeling of losing that is not recognition of some new fact of our reality; it is you experiencing a psychological weapon.
@inthehands This whole thread is a very classy response
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@mathew @audiodude @inthehands
What if neither works for you? And only extrinsic rewards works?
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i think the original Stoics would approve this advice
Yeah its bootstraps ideology…
I recognize it every time I see it. -
A particularly dissonance in my musical life is the aggressive non-interest of the world in my music in competitive circles (commerce, grants, whatever) and the warm, passionate enthusiasm it receives when I share it with people in person.
What’s worked for me: creating contexts of joy and mutual support where I can share with people — not just share generically in general, but sharing with specific actual people where there is a human relationship underlying the sharing — and then sharing.
@inthehands Insightful and helpful to read this. Such a boost. Thanks!
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RE: https://thepit.social/@peter/116376219055579156
I know a lot of people, in software and otherwise, who are feeling things along these lines.
Hold on, whatever tools you’re using, just hold on to your sense of purpose and meaning. There are a lot of forces at work in this world that want to rob you of that. Your feeling of losing that is not recognition of some new fact of our reality; it is you experiencing a psychological weapon.
@inthehands my hope is that all the people who didn't let their cognitive skills atrophy by using AI to write their code for them will be the valuable hires after everyone wakes up to the emperor's lack of clothing.
But damn is it bleak right now.
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Tech jobs are highly cyclical and lots of the gen AI stuff is ridiculously overhyped, and I’m hopeful that the wheel will keep turning and the professional prospects of software developers will improve again…assuming human civilization survives, that is.
But what I said above applies regardless. We should all be doing this meaning-making work all the time, even in the best job markets. In fact, that work is a part of •making• human civilization survive.
I suppose since I talked about my life as a musical weirdo, I should link to it! I don’t have a Soundcloud; I have a completely bespoke personal web site I made from the ground up because of everything upthread.
Something dreamy and old-school:
https://innig.net/music/inthehands/brahms-ballade-10-4Something dreamy and new-school:
https://innig.net/music/scores/words/Something with a long dramatic arc:
https://innig.net/music/albums/brokenmirror/ -
I suppose since I talked about my life as a musical weirdo, I should link to it! I don’t have a Soundcloud; I have a completely bespoke personal web site I made from the ground up because of everything upthread.
Something dreamy and old-school:
https://innig.net/music/inthehands/brahms-ballade-10-4Something dreamy and new-school:
https://innig.net/music/scores/words/Something with a long dramatic arc:
https://innig.net/music/albums/brokenmirror/@inthehands Thank you.
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One advantage of being an artistic weirdo who makes completely commercially non-viable music is that I have a •lot• of practice forging that sense of purpose and meaning for myself when the world is aggressively not handing it to me.
Software development has been coasting on a wave of profitability / employability for several decades, and as a discipline perhaps has an underdeveloped sense of intrinsic purpose. Now is a good time to for us to redevelop that as a community, regardless of future job market prospects.
@inthehands I can tell you that, as someone who was a electronics / software hobbyist before I became a professional, I have rediscovered the joy of making for fun in retirement (I just didn't have the energy for it when I was working). The hardest part is having the discipline to finish things when there are no external drivers. Getting involved in communities of like-minded folks has been helpful there
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I suppose since I talked about my life as a musical weirdo, I should link to it! I don’t have a Soundcloud; I have a completely bespoke personal web site I made from the ground up because of everything upthread.
Something dreamy and old-school:
https://innig.net/music/inthehands/brahms-ballade-10-4Something dreamy and new-school:
https://innig.net/music/scores/words/Something with a long dramatic arc:
https://innig.net/music/albums/brokenmirror/@inthehands Just browsing through, and I note your Chopin 28/4 is from twenty years ago now; I wonder if your interpretation would change if you were to pick the piece up again? Don't think I've heard it with quite that denouement before.
(Currently working my way through 28/15 [Raindrop] myself, it's slow going...)
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@inthehands Just browsing through, and I note your Chopin 28/4 is from twenty years ago now; I wonder if your interpretation would change if you were to pick the piece up again? Don't think I've heard it with quite that denouement before.
(Currently working my way through 28/15 [Raindrop] myself, it's slow going...)
@Two9A
I don’t think my interpretation of the E minor prelude has changed significantly since I first learned it circa 1995. (Some of the others on the site I play quite differently now!)I’ve read through the Raindrop but never properly learned it. Here is a video of my teacher playing it in his home, well into his 90s at that point:
- YouTube
Auf YouTube findest du die angesagtesten Videos und Tracks. Außerdem kannst du eigene Inhalte hochladen und mit Freunden oder gleich der ganzen Welt teilen.
(www.youtube.com)
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@Two9A
I don’t think my interpretation of the E minor prelude has changed significantly since I first learned it circa 1995. (Some of the others on the site I play quite differently now!)I’ve read through the Raindrop but never properly learned it. Here is a video of my teacher playing it in his home, well into his 90s at that point:
- YouTube
Auf YouTube findest du die angesagtesten Videos und Tracks. Außerdem kannst du eigene Inhalte hochladen und mit Freunden oder gleich der ganzen Welt teilen.
(www.youtube.com)
@inthehands Don plays it wonderfully, and with such efficient low-movement attack. And I might have picked up a hint or two on how to tackle the last bars of the C#m section; thanks on both fronts.
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@inthehands Don plays it wonderfully, and with such efficient low-movement attack. And I might have picked up a hint or two on how to tackle the last bars of the C#m section; thanks on both fronts.
@Two9A
I love those videos of him in his later years. He doesn’t have the technical agility of youth (compare to https://innig.net/music/albums/betts-dimensions/#betts-dimensions-liszt-mephisto-1) and has very little left to prove; his playing is just stripped to the heart of what mattered to him, and that gives it a kind of piercing clarity. -
I suppose since I talked about my life as a musical weirdo, I should link to it! I don’t have a Soundcloud; I have a completely bespoke personal web site I made from the ground up because of everything upthread.
Something dreamy and old-school:
https://innig.net/music/inthehands/brahms-ballade-10-4Something dreamy and new-school:
https://innig.net/music/scores/words/Something with a long dramatic arc:
https://innig.net/music/albums/brokenmirror/One advantage of being the sort of person who will write software for fun as well as professionally is that it's a survival strategy. I'm now working on a particularly difficult project in part because it will help keep those skills from atrophying.
(The project, BTW: https://codeberg.org/suetanvil/loom )
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@mathew @Energetic_Nova @inthehands This is something I'm actually working on in therapy, if you believe it. The problem with relying solely on extrinsic rewards is that you kind of learn to "tolerate" them after a while, even when you get them.
