The problem isn’t the tools, but rather the sociopath executives and the individuals who won’t stick up for themselves. Everyone loses when people don’t stand up for what’s right.

Oh do I feel you. I’ve been into IT most of my life and using Linux for about 15 years now. Professional Sysadmin for ~10 years.

I loathed crypto but AI is really the Band oft my existance. While everyone around me (not in technical fields) has been toying/working with ChatGPT and the like I’ve never actually touched an LLM (except for automatically through Gemini and the like) but it’s getting impossible to ignore.

My hope is that the AI bubble will eventually burst and while LLMs as tools (like assistant for writing documents/mails etc.) will probably be here to stay the “Now with AI” buzzword bingo will hopefully end?

As for keeping the Joy I am so lucky as to work in a Field where we still do most things manually and Provisioning Laptops or the Occasional server still is done free from any AI. For my own projects I also focus on what I need and can provide on my on infrastructure. I self host a Nextcloud and have a little Jellyfin Server which always are an opportunity for some improvements/maintenance which is after still a hobby of mine. But in the end they simply fulfill a function.

Trains are cool. I started woodworking because of the same thing happening to me.

Please share pics of trains

Same here. Specifically, I do still love technology and all sorts of STEM subjects, but I have no excitement for tech products.

One plus point for recent tech trends, my Commodore 64 is seeing a lot more use!

I’m 31, been a sysadmin for over 10 years and I’ve been enjoying work more than ever. I hate AI but it is very exciting at the same time.

Mine has been helpdesk>sysengineer>network engineer>hgv driver. I still tinker for fun but I hate working with computers now

I don’t have any advice because I’m in exactly the same boat. I think finding other hobbies is probably the best option. It sucks because things were looking so good there for a while until the fucking tech bros ruined it. My problem is all my other interests require workspace that I don’t have.

This year, I have given myself a project, I will try to build a model railway in a suitcase. That will be a Z-scale tiny world in a suitcase.

I used to make miniature buildings out of things like balsa wood, spackle, etc for D&D. It became a challenge to see how closely I could simulate things like grass, torches, etc.

I hope I never have to buy a car with one of those damn screens controlling everything.

Everything is a scam. It feels like no engineers exist any longer. It’s not even just tech it’s everything. I bought a jar from a major retailer and the lids don’t fit right on them.

It’s pretty obvious capitalism has run its course. What i don’t get is the amount of people helping destroy the world they have to live in or worse—they are having kids in a world they are actively making shitty for six figures.

Then they use their kids as the excuse to make the world worse for everyone else! “I can’t afford not to!”

Well, what you actually can’t afford is to keep doing this. Quit working for these public corps. Sacrifice everything to not work for them. I promise you’ll be better off after some pain. Coming from someone with no actual education that made it out you college grads can do it. I believe in you.

And your kids don’t need large Christmas’s and a new car at 16 with private school. They do need a functioning world.

I’m personally focusing on the parts of tech I still find enjoyable. Chip / circuit design, OS and low level programming, and Formal Verification.

All of the patient detailed work that AI is never going to be able to do, because it has to be perfect to work. I feel lucky that I enjoy this type of work, it seems to be very much against the Zeitgeist.

I can honestly say that I dread the future of tech, and the goat farm thing sounds really appealing.

I went to a local store the other day and saw 2 new flock cameras that went up. There was one person manning 8 self checkout stations, and there was a camera watching me scan and bag my own stuff while displaying a live feed of me. I hopped in my car, which automatically turned on GPS and then my phone started giving me “helpful” suggestions like " have you tried out this restaurant nearby?" and “it’s been a while since you’ve been to the pet store to get stuff”. I suddenly felt like a boiled frog, because I don’t remember turning any of that shit on, or being notified about it being turned on, or seeing info about new surveillance cameras going up in the community. At this point, I want to buy some land in the middle of fucking nowhere and disconnect from all that shit, and I legitimately had a low-level panic about all of it.

I’ve felt much of the same things. It’s depressing. The Internet used to be cool. Tech used to be cool.

Fortunately, I’ve been doing more things in the real world. I’ve been fixing up an old car. It’s fun to drive it even though it’s slow and noisy and hilariously unsafe. I’ve been practicing archery with my kid. We are both getting decent. I’ve been writing more. I have been raising chickens, I now have 14 lovely girls who give me and my neighbors free eggs, and one bigass hateful rooster that keeps them safe. Lastly I’ve been teaching myself drone photography. I’ve been building a meshtastic network on my area.

So the Internet used to be cool but… I’ve decided that I’m going to just have to be cool instead.

That sucks, that your passion for your job got eroded to this point. The z scale train in a suitcase sounds like a really cool project. Share some updates along the way.