Cap Ybarra18h ago
nearly thirty years ago i saw a guy stand up in an all hands staff meeting, declare "this is stupid", walk out and never come back, and friends, there's not a single day of 2026 I haven't thought of him
Show threadCharlie Stross16h ago

@cap_ybarra

I haven't *precisely* done that, but there was one all-hands at a company I worked for until March 1995 that made me quit my job a week or so later.

What did it was the music when the board of directors ran on stage, punching the air, to announce the old CEO's retirement and replacement by the CFO.

They played "Things can only get better".

Reader: they did not.

(Luckily I read the writing on the wall and got out in time.)

Show threadCap Ybarra16h ago
@cstross i heard of some ballmer pep rallys at msft that went similarly
Show threadCharlie Stross16h ago
@cap_ybarra This was at SCO, during its final years as an actual UNIX VAR doing software development rather than a set of trademarks sold to a litigation mill. Which is kind of the point.
Show threadCap Ybarra15h ago
@cstross if nothing else it's a reminder that the self immolation of the software industry is cyclical. could set your clocks to it
Show threadCharlie Stross15h ago
@cap_ybarra Yes, but I have a feeling it's running out of headroom: Moore's Law is more or less done, which means there are no more easy gains to be had. Meanwhile the VCs are trying to reap the same levels of profit as a growth industry from a mature industry, hence the LLM bubble now inflating. I can't see where they go from here after it bursts.
Show threadLisPi14h ago
@cstross @cap_ybarra Might we finally see people actually pay attention to better design, if only because they literally can't afford not to anymore?
Show threadRupert V/
@lispi314 @cap_ybarra @cstross Problem is that being an employed programmer gives you lifestyle expectations you can't meet as an unemployed programmer. So increasing numbers of unemployed programmers are spending all their time chasing decreasing numbers of programming jobs instead of taking their laptops to a Mexican beach and writing a free* version of whatever they were doing before that will run on half the hardware.
* Free as in beer and speech, of course, but also free of spyware, ransomware, and plagiarized aislop.
1:05amWeb
Show threadLisPi10h ago
@rupert @cap_ybarra @cstross I think a considerable part of that has to do with local social safety nets.

Some countries are a lot more survivable than others on unemployment.

In some, such a lifestyle as "eating more than once a day and having a roof over one's head" is unattainable on such.

(This is fully by design, of course.)