The Job, the World and the Next Meal
On the auction block again…
Yes, I abandoned my writing for a while.
On January 28th, the competitor that bought Rosetta Stone from the hedge fund (yes, that Rosetta Stone) laid off all but a few engineers. The ones that remained found jobs shortly thereafter. I was in the job market again after five years at a very nice company that was actually helping people.
I did what I always do. I noted that I was looking for a job on LinkedIn.com and companies started contacting me. I ended up interviewing with five companies. Four of those companies gave me several hours of homework and several interviews. Looking for a software job is a full time job.
I couldn’t help but feel that I was being led on. Lots of the same questions over and over as if they were struggling to decide what to do next. Finally one HR person exposed the question in everyone’s minds, “You’re 64 years old. Why are you looking for a job?”
Well, there it was right out where everyone could see it. I was looking for a job because software companies offer no pensions and I had mis-invested. I couldn’t retire, so I had to work.
One company, only one, said (not in these words, of course) You’re old and experienced and that is exactly what we need. I was hired in March and I am now gainfully employed. The revelation that I will never get another job after this one drove a drastic move. We sold our valuable Colorado property and bought an inexpensive house in Rochester, NY. I became totally focused on work and home repairs for six months. The new company uses unique and innovative methods and I had to struggle to adequately understand the more advanced concepts. It’s a start-up and so late nights are not unusual. I’ve caught up and I’m working productively. A bout of gout and cellulitis resulting from stress and a contaminated basement put me in the hospital for a week; but with all of those issues addressed, I am now trying again to write.
You Are not Served by Modern Capitalism
The job search reminded me that in a world where one must work to eat, work remains a privilege granted by the corporate state. I am not useless because I am old. In fact, my forty years of experience should be prized by potential employers. As a young programmer, I was subject to implementing solutions without sufficient care. I required supervision and training. I was expensive and I offered marginal value.
With abundant training by those of experience, my value has increased. My insistence on disciplined execution should have been seen as a boon. My documented past solutions should have been seen as an indication of good things to come; but, that was not the case. In the four pointlessly grueling interview ordeals, they wanted young programmers who would follow instructions. That was it.
Our corporate culture no longer values innovation and our civil culture no longer values experience. These two phenomena yield a world of mediocre waste. The people are not served by those who are in the best position to serve. The corporations which, in the past, provided us with cars, computers and cures for disease, are now preoccupied with profit-by-procedure. The consumer is placated with cheap glitzy features provided from a simple production line of workers following step-by-step instructions from Marketing.
If we are to actually advance as a society, we must recapture innovation as a goal. Drugs must be produced that cure people rather than elevate a fatal disease to a profitable chronic disease. We must reject the profitable fuel of the rich for the abundant fuel of the future. We must reject propaganda for useful facts. We must pool our resources to solve complex problems or the world we cherish is doomed.
There Is Hope
I am now a Lead Software Engineer with a small start-up called MOLTEN. I am working with brilliant MIT graduates who have assembled a massive software code base for the purpose of managing media rights. That means improving the distribution of movies, music and other creative endeavors and assuring that the deserving rights-holders, including the artists responsible for the value, receive their due monetary rewards in a timely fashion.
I was hired to help these young, creative engineers assure that their product would scale well for the foreseeable future. This is amazingly rare in technology! Those responsible for the product are actually intent upon inviting criticism. They have invited in a fresh pair of eyes, knowing full well that those eyes may declare their baby ugly. (It is not.) This level of maturity is essential to true innovation. The popular trope of the lone genius is a myth. All great work involves a creative, collaborating community prepared to risk error but not to propagate it.
I am actually doing difficult work for the first time since leaving Sun Microsystems. I am actually providing real value again. I am learning from brilliant thinkers and I am using my experience augmented with their brilliance to actually make things better. I am taking risks and putting forward my skills to both critique and to be critiqued by those who sincerely believe that innovation will yield real value. This has drawn me away from writing because innovation is an all-consuming addiction. It is a drug we must popularize throughout the world; because, the more people we can burden with this addiction, the better off the world will be.
We Can Do This
I now commit to return to writing. I will struggle to find the time; but, creative projects must interact to form a whole person. I enjoy writing and I greatly appreciate my readers. My long and difficult hiatus may now draw to a close; and, I look forward to amplifying the creativity inspired by my new and challenging position in upcoming essays.
We have all heard of empty calories when referring to food that satisfies but provides no nutrition. My job search has reinforced my belief that capital now drives a sort of empty work wherein the activities of potentially creative people are directed to mere profit as opposed to real value. My entirely unexpected experience with MOLTEN assures me that there are still pockets of real innovation. Other small start-ups like Aptera and Ritual provide answers to actual problems with the intention of making the world a little better. Unlimited wealth does not have to be the motivation for human action. There are competent people in the world who really want to make it better.
If we can accept this demonstrable fact and bring it into focus, we, as a community, may advance. We, as a community, may solve the problem of the smartphone and not just update it. We may solve the problem of identity theft and not just mitigate it. We may solve the problem of wide-spread propaganda and not just repudiate it. We can make the world better; and, we must do this together.
Julian S. Taylor is the author of Famine in the Bullpen a book about bringing innovation back to software engineering.
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