I've been thinking about the sentiment sometimes described as "I want to quit tech and become a goat herder."

Setting aside burnout, I think there's also a growing disappointment that technology does not magically solve problems.

The way I see it, there were a few eras in this process of disillusionment:

1970s - Research labs, hackers at MIT and Stanford.

1980s - Nerds build computers and make things. This is fun!

1990s - The web became popularized and dot-com mania. Corporate America starts paying serious attention and big tech is a thing.

2000s - All the computer nerds decide that making money is OK as long as their motto is "Don't Be Evil." Seems like a low bar, but OK.

2010s - Sectors are disrupted as software eats the world. Facebook and Google become Meta and Alphabet as users' data becomes the product. People in tech lament that they're using their skills to sell ads.

2020s - Enshittification ramps up and tech employers no longer even pretend to care about anything other than shareholder value. Tech is now making society more divided and dumber.

I don't know where things go next. That would be a more helpful analysis, but it's easier to see how we got to where we are today. If you have technical skills and want to make money to support your family but also don't want to harm society, what's there to do?

At least in cybersecurity, you can tell yourself that you're protecting people and businesses against cyber attacks.