Doctorow is an expert at stirring the pot. However, I disagree with the overall premise of his piece.
He frames most of his thesis on how FAANG companies tightened the screws since their "college campus" era during their scrappier days.
While he isn't wrong about these workplaces having become less surreal over the years, these actions are a consequence of going public and becoming huge megacorps. Microsoft, Oracle, Adobe, IBM and many others went through the exact same thing. Tale as old as time.
Furthermore, SWEs are, by and large, still paid multiples over the median _before_ considering hours worked, and they still get excellent benefits that other professions that leverage "vocational awe" wouldn't even dream of providing. Heck, SWEs/SREs have the benefit of (theoretically) being able to choose whether to work fully remote or not and have a high chance of getting highly paid either way.
To wit, there was a thread on Blind the other day wherein someone at a non-FAANG was asking if chasing money meant anything anymore after clearing their first million USD. This is _despite_ bigwigs like Benioff boasting about freezing all software engineering hires now that generative AI is "good enough" (which I don't think they actually did?).
There is NO OTHER INDUSTRY wherein "normies" that didn't go to highly-regarded school for years and years on end have a realistic shot at this kind of compensation.
Software is still a high-skilled, highly-niche profession. Generative AI "simplifies" writing software, but that's only 20-40% of the job, IMO. As long as that remains true, and as long as margins on software remain astronomical, demand will remain high and SWE/SWE-adjacent professionals will continue to be paid well.
3np · 3d ago
> these actions are a consequence of going public and becoming huge megacorps
IDK, seen and heard plenty of the same in private companies with no apparent track to go public. It's industry-wide, not just FAANG. I'm not sure that can all be waved off as cargo-culting.
> There is NO OTHER INDUSTRY wherein "normies" that didn't go to highly-regarded school for years and years on end have a realistic shot at this kind of compensation.
> Software is still a high-skilled, highly-niche profession. Generative AI "simplifies" writing software, but that's only 20-40% of the job, IMO. As long as that remains true, and as long as margins on software remain astronomical, demand will remain high and SWE/SWE-adjacent professionals will continue to be paid well.
That's not counter to Doctorow's points. In fact, they contribute to the trend he's describing ("golden handcuffs", for example). The relatively high paycheck and impression of privilege and comfort vs workers in worse conditions are levers, not the point.
cruzcampo · 3d ago
Capital has gotten too cocky and has forgotten that all profits are created by labor.
It is time we change that. We need to unionize, strike and shut down production. The tactics of the industrial revolution still work in the digital age.
wnc3141 · 3d ago
A big part of preserving a democracy hinges on managing the relationship between Capital and labor.
Political Economist Daron Acemoglu won a Nobel Prize last year for studying the difference between democracies that manage the relationship between labor and capital and authoritarian regimes that fail to do so.
If interested, check out his book "why nations fail" or any of his updated works.
wnc3141 · 3d ago
I would argue that the best indicator we have for the health of our democracy is the steady decline of the labor share of income (I'll attach a link here later) - as that essentially translates to "our individual and collective ability to participate in our economic destinies"
This situation is just not going to end well. The people in power increasingly make it harder to have a voice or lift yourself out of poverty. There is a huge pool of recent grads growing angrier everyday because of lack of opportunities. The dawn will eventually break open.
cantrecallmypwd · 3d ago
> The people in power increasingly make it harder to have a voice or lift yourself out of poverty.
Thom Hartmann just made this point on his daily show from a class statist-perspective where the rich kids at the Ivies are offered upward mobility while everything everywhere else condemns the individual to class immobility.
cruzcampo · 3d ago
To quote JFK - "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
Things are getting closer to the boiling point. It'll tip over soon if things keep going this way.
He frames most of his thesis on how FAANG companies tightened the screws since their "college campus" era during their scrappier days.
While he isn't wrong about these workplaces having become less surreal over the years, these actions are a consequence of going public and becoming huge megacorps. Microsoft, Oracle, Adobe, IBM and many others went through the exact same thing. Tale as old as time.
Furthermore, SWEs are, by and large, still paid multiples over the median _before_ considering hours worked, and they still get excellent benefits that other professions that leverage "vocational awe" wouldn't even dream of providing. Heck, SWEs/SREs have the benefit of (theoretically) being able to choose whether to work fully remote or not and have a high chance of getting highly paid either way.
To wit, there was a thread on Blind the other day wherein someone at a non-FAANG was asking if chasing money meant anything anymore after clearing their first million USD. This is _despite_ bigwigs like Benioff boasting about freezing all software engineering hires now that generative AI is "good enough" (which I don't think they actually did?).
There is NO OTHER INDUSTRY wherein "normies" that didn't go to highly-regarded school for years and years on end have a realistic shot at this kind of compensation.
Software is still a high-skilled, highly-niche profession. Generative AI "simplifies" writing software, but that's only 20-40% of the job, IMO. As long as that remains true, and as long as margins on software remain astronomical, demand will remain high and SWE/SWE-adjacent professionals will continue to be paid well.
IDK, seen and heard plenty of the same in private companies with no apparent track to go public. It's industry-wide, not just FAANG. I'm not sure that can all be waved off as cargo-culting.
> There is NO OTHER INDUSTRY wherein "normies" that didn't go to highly-regarded school for years and years on end have a realistic shot at this kind of compensation.
> Software is still a high-skilled, highly-niche profession. Generative AI "simplifies" writing software, but that's only 20-40% of the job, IMO. As long as that remains true, and as long as margins on software remain astronomical, demand will remain high and SWE/SWE-adjacent professionals will continue to be paid well.
That's not counter to Doctorow's points. In fact, they contribute to the trend he's describing ("golden handcuffs", for example). The relatively high paycheck and impression of privilege and comfort vs workers in worse conditions are levers, not the point.
It is time we change that. We need to unionize, strike and shut down production. The tactics of the industrial revolution still work in the digital age.
Political Economist Daron Acemoglu won a Nobel Prize last year for studying the difference between democracies that manage the relationship between labor and capital and authoritarian regimes that fail to do so.
If interested, check out his book "why nations fail" or any of his updated works.
Thom Hartmann just made this point on his daily show from a class statist-perspective where the rich kids at the Ivies are offered upward mobility while everything everywhere else condemns the individual to class immobility.
Things are getting closer to the boiling point. It'll tip over soon if things keep going this way.