Comment by bravetraveler 5 hours ago
That's great (unironically) for you and the shareholders. I've lost the joy of learning things, honestly. After two decades of skill-building and 98% of it being utterly useless, I have a certain complex.
Said another way: the job needs 2+2, rewards poorly, and I'm too tired for Calculus.
Ah, so you're part of why I'm working so hard!
That's great for you. Sarcastic this time. I truly meant well, now I don't care. To be clear: 'shareholders' was a quip at the industry, not you.
Well, you see, life has demanded I trade a certain meaning for value creation. Hence my attitude. There's that complex I told you about. Ghoulishly wanting reciprocation, or day I say, a payoff.
I'd trade half my salary/effort to live in my home town and closer to meaning... yet, I don't. Not an option. Can't avoid RTO forever or pay bills with back-pats.
Nice implication on my life meaning, bro. Sorry, sir. I lower the rim and you dunk. Well played.
I'll do you one better! Same for your following year(s).
Learn for yourself then. I run my own company and learning new stuff so I can use it in my business is one of the few joys of being the owner. No permission required to try the new hotness (And if you screw up -- you have only yourself to blame.)
Ah, well, I need a business for this advice to meaningfully change anything :) Sounds like a lot of work.
I have been learning for myself, that's a category of useless. Would've been better spent knitting; therapy for applying the useful 2%.
I think we have to enjoy what we learn. I have no motivation at all, to learn stuff I don't like doing.
In my case, I really enjoy coding, and making stuff that people use.
Part of the impediments that I have encountered, is other people's attitudes. As long as co-workers and technical peers thought of me as "competition," they would deliberately make it difficult for me to access the stuff I needed to learn.
LLMs have absolutely no fear of me, and gladly give me exactly what I need (sometimes, too much).
I'm glad to hear LLMs help you out. They don't, here. Learning isn't the issue: I already have a wealth of information I can't put to use, or perhaps more accurately: won't be sufficiently rewarded for.
Perhaps I could use them for the parts I don't enjoy. Or I could... not.
It's all a wash, I guess is my point. While we're out here working, leagues are idling. I aspire to be more like them.
No shareholders. I'm retired, after a long career, doing stuff I found meaningful, but never really earned me huge piles of money. Being retired has been wonderful. I get to learn whatever the heck I want. I still make stuff that is meaningful, but I don't make money at it (which isn't actually a bad thing).
I guess finding a meaningful life has always been more important to me, than being rewarded in money. I know that makes me a mutant, around these parts, but that's how I roll.