Life is more than work, but work can be good.
Earlier in my life I spent too much time working for the sake of money or recognition.
Later in my life I'm fortunate enough to focus on different reasons to work.
The people.
I have found joy in helping others. Building with others. Succeeding and failing with others.
Being a good colleague, developing professional, friendly and even close relationships with coworkers has given me so much joy.
The craft, the path.
I'm one of the luckiest persons in the planet having found a good career in something I enjoy a lot.
Being suspect of having some sort of ADHD, my brain requires heavy doses of stimulus, learning and mastering things works it out.
The rush of solving a complex problem, the rush of reflecting on the process, the thrill to improve it.
The boredom of just maintenance.
Work can be awful.
Lack of agency is burnout. Burnout is hell.
One single bad leader/manager, poisons the well, for everyone.
There is just too much BS in our industry.
Capitalism could be better, but VC and other forms of burning money are just evil forms of capitalism.
Some days I wish fads like VC-driven tech crashes down and all of them lose their money.
Specially for fads like Crypto and "AI".
Work could be better.
Focus on people: customers, colleagues, workers.
Focus on learning and solving real current problems.
Fight back and use tech for good. Use the leverage of tech workers for good, while we still have some.