

The Choice of Work - DaniFong
http://einfall.wordpress.com/2008/06/26/the-choice-of-work/

======
IsaacSchlueter
Power > Money.

It's practically a hacker axiom. Money matters, but changing the world is what
_really_ matters. Money is just a way to be able to work on changing the world
without having to worry about keeping the rent paid.

Thanks for sharing this.

~~~
notauser
Money and power are (in most cases) synonyms though.

Converting money into power isn't hard - if you had $100m you could direct a
lot of people to your own ends. The fact that most people expend this power on
making more money is a correlation not a cause.

Equally converting power into money is trivial, with just a few megawatts
available and some crocodile clips you can get almost any banker to agree to
hand over his cash ;)

~~~
cconstantine
More classical management classes (yes I took one, no I'm not a manager) tell
you people are interested some set of Money, Power and Prestige.

1) Money. It lets you buy stuff. It may let you buy power and prestige, but
this is a secondary thing. Money heavy jobs: Bankers, stock brokers, oil
tycoons.

2) Power. Power is the ability to get other people to do what you want. Power
heavy jobs: Managers, Heads of State, Mob bosses, evil villains.

3) Prestige. This is how much respect you have from others and the quality of
your reputation. Prestige heavy jobs: Professors, lead scientists,
philanthropists.

Nobody works for just one of those, and you can sacrifice one for the others.
When you work in a company and reviews come around you're given; a raise that
tickles your money itch, a promotion that tickles your power itch, and awards
that tickle your prestige itch. Or at least that's the theory, and I tend to
think it's a decent approximation.

~~~
IsaacSchlueter
Interesting.

I see power a bit differently. Power is one's ability to affect the world.
"Getting other people to do what you want" doesn't really cut to the core of
the matter.

Jobs and Wozniak, Gates, Torvalds, Brin and Page, these people are all quite
well off financially (to say the least). But that's not what's impressive
about them, at least, not to me. They've all had a huge effect on the way that
our world runs.

Clearly, there is a link between money and power---money buys power, and power
can be turned into money---but they're quite not the same thing. Money can
only affect the world by getting people to do things in exchange for it.
Someone who makes a billion dollars through wise investing is not the same
kind of animal as someone who foresaw a major shift in society and had the
moxy and brains to push it forward.

Also in this power list are people like Tim Berners-Lee, Djikstra, and Knuth.
The kind of power that politicians have seems transient and shallow by
comparison. In 10 years, George Bush will be just another ex president who
threw his army around. TBL's place in history will be relevant in 1000 years.

I know who I'd rather be when I grow up. :)

~~~
cconstantine
In the context I was taught power had that very specific meaning. In this
specific meaning money isn't power (though it can buy it), and money isn't
prestige (though it can buy that too, see billg). In this definition, Bush has
lots of power, and almost no prestige. Prestige on the order that Djikstra,
Knuth, Turing, etc. have tends to last much longer than the people who earned
it. Money and Power have almost no meaning beyond your lifetime.

If you follow the narrow definitions of the course, things tend to fall in
place fairly cleanly.

One of the things that makes me wary of this model is that you can buy one for
another. To be truly elemental of what people want you wouldn't be able to buy
one for the other. You can't exchange lead for gold no matter how much lead
you throw at the problem. This leads to confusion about what is what.

If you can buy power with money doesn't that make them interchangeable? Well
yes, but that's not the point. Well what's the point? People tend to crave
power money and prestige. But can't you buy power with money? ... And the
cyclical argument continues :)

~~~
IsaacSchlueter
Well, that's just it. The kind of power that I think hackers crave is the kind
that you _can't_ buy with money.

Even if you had billions of dollars to throw at the problem, you could never
be as relevant a figure in shaping the face of technology as Turing or von
Neuman were. They created the ideas that are at the very core of so much that
we do. You can't invent something again, and money isn't the tool you use to
invent stuff :)

The shallow, transitory sort of power certainly can be bought. You can use
money to make people do things. But you can't think with money, so it doesn't
give you the power to have powerful thoughts, and THAT'S what changes the
world.

That kind of power can obviously be turned into money, though.

------
wallflower
I'm a bleeding-heart romantic. I used to be a workaholic - had an emotional
relationship with work - now we're just good friends.

If work doesn't make you happy, it can give you the means - it can give you
the financial support to do the things that make you and others happy.

I'm learning over and over (loop) that trying to look at things as black and
white, good or bad can make you unhappy, which is why reading this essay gives
me concern - I think Danielle is much like me - I want to change the world -
but I'm starting to think my lever might not be technology - I don't know if I
have the talent and commitment to get hired by a startup/start a startup.
After doing code for my day job, coming home at night, I'd rather go out and
dance Salsa so I become a better dancer (not just a guy who goes through
patterns, but one who dances and has a connection with his partner). Though I
do think I can make little cool web apps like twistori/twittervision and I
will once I become more efficient (e.g. Ruby over Java)). I really think my
lever might be connecting with people and telling stories.

Danielle - Thanks for the essay. You are eloquent and understated.

~~~
DaniFong
Connecting with people is an incredibly powerful thing. If you can inject
meaning into the hearts of the able, you have the power to do good.

You may discover, however, after going out and dancing Salsa and enjoying life
in that way, that you can come back to technology refreshed and renewed and
ambitious. I've seen this time and time again.

------
marcus
You're right about technology being a lever and the importance of using it.
Which is exactly the reason I believe we should try working on designing
bigger better levers, and not just applying existing levers to existing
problems.

------
bgutierrez
I didn't expect to find a new favorite essayist today.

~~~
ajross
Agreed. Nice piece. Pity the page style makes my eyes bleed (small white-on-
black fonts, oww).

~~~
DaniFong
Okay, so I spent a bunch of time revising the design based on previous
complaints, tuning up the contrast, for example. I find white on black much
easier to read myself.

But I guess it's time to read the tea leaves. Users hate white on black. Got
it.

~~~
AlfaWolph
Piping up so those like myself might be heard.. I find white on black easier
on the eyes. _while admiring his dark desktop theme_ I agree with the
enlarging the type comment, however.

As for your post, I will point out that there are save one or two brilliant
individuals at the F500 companies here in my midsized city (comparable to the
guys (and girls) that frequent here). I've been trying to bring my skillset up
to a comfortable level to work with these guys (or someone else at their
level) for a while now. It's been slow and steady, and sometimes, I even have
my doubts if I can (the maths are not a strong suit of mine).

Anyways, I do think there are some great challenges at Fortune 500 companies
having worked at a few myself. Do they carry monetary rewards at the level of
work that these individuals work at? I don't think so but the rewards seem to
come from hands on experience received in using high-end datacenter hardware
and working on large scale projects.

------
d0mine
A nice blue-sky cover letter written with passion.

------
prakash
Based on this, what companies have you shortlisted where you could work --
curious to know :-)

------
sutro
I hear Halliburton's hiring.

------
sabat
If I could speak to my younger, enthusiastic self, I'd say: stay strong. There
are hordes of unambitious, lackluster people who will be threatened by you and
your passion and your talent, and who will try very hard to beat it out of
you. Don't let them.

Einstein said: "Great spirits have always found violent opposition from
mediocrities."

~~~
jfarmer
Blegh. I hate that attitude.

Everyone has a story. Dismissing people by calling them mediocre, unambitious,
or lackluster says more about you than them.

~~~
PieSquared
It's not necessarily dismissing them. Face it, some people are mediocre and
unambitious. It doesn't say anything about what kind of people they are, but
it says something about how they are intellectually and how pleasant working
with them will be.

~~~
tjr
More to the point, people who are unambitious are mostly harmless. It's their
right to be unambitious. It's those who start trying to persuade ambitious
people that their ambitions will fail that are annoying.

~~~
jfarmer
Mmm, yes, and we will swat them away like the annoying gnats that they truly
are. _cackle_

