the_dunk_tank

CS = Coffee Specialist

I always resented the "I'm going into engineering for the money" crowd, like damn, leave some room for the people who actually want to do this.

I always resented the people who thought this way, because I went into engineering for the money, and the people who vocally thought this tended to be upper middle class with big safety nets. Not saying this is where you’re coming from, btw. But it always felt like some people thought I didn’t belong there or couldn’t be a good engineer because my motives weren’t “pure” enough, like I should feel bad for wanting to live a more comfortable life than my parents and I did when I was growing up.

it's funny. I've ended up here because it's what I'm good at doing. but slowly I've come to learn is that what I'm better at and what I really like to do is solving the sociotechnical problems that make working in a particular workplace miserable. so I've adjusted over time. it's not really a position you can interview for, so my resume is all normal technical engineering, but there's a narrow slice I target because doing that particular job means solving the social problems I really want to get at. and my dream is that I stay at one place long enough so that I can make it obvious that the root of all these problems is the fucking executives so it's time to form a union!! (tech types will never go for it without the upfront work that gets them to see you as a friend and ally in their struggles, personally, and without the plank by plank evidence that the owners are genuinely to blame).

in other words, my life became politics even before I became a leftist

Because the capitalists are winning. Techies in generally skew a bit individualistic and libertarian, and the communist ones are generally pussies content to live high on the hog because if I made a communist ruckus I’m sure they would be happy to kick me out.

But in general, we’re paid off as petit bourgeois and often we do the job of the middle managers anyway: tracking and compiling metrics and anything else the shareholders can use to lay us off or keep us in check. Yes if we had class solidarity we could weaponize our labor power, we are the doers of the most profitable companies in the world. It doesn’t happen for the same reason restaurant workers haven’t unionized broadly in the US: the capitalists are winning, they’re good at keeping us down, and they put a great deal of effort into propaganda to keep the game running.