I like the idea of you https://joinkith.com/ but I don't see how it can possibly work. These are the issues:
There are people who are sick of social media and will never be convinced to join up again. They've already left the building and aren't looking for anything else. I'm not quite there, but almost.
Other people are using established social media simply because that's where their people and orgs publish. I am eternally frustrated when my local cafe uses Insta or FB for their "web presence", but I'm not going to be the one to convince them to use something else. I hate that my local rock climbing partner finder group is located on FB, but what can I do about it? I also think it sucks that there are thousands of people in that group - I soon realized that this group simply doesn't work for me, since rock climbing requires high trust and I can't trust thousands of people.
Many people resist the idea of signing up for yet another social media account, esp when none of their people/orgs are already there. For example, I've sometimes thought of starting a Heylo group for local rock climbers to find partners - this might actually help me find more climbing partners. But I've never tried it. I just don't think people will join. The barrier to entry is (1) install app (2) create login (3) use app. SFAICT no one wants to do this if they're already on FB and already are a member of the group there. Even people that I know manage finding partners with email lists (gag). Can you imagine how much higher the barrier to entry would be if adding (4) you have to pay a monthly fee?
I do like the idea of "only allowed to invite someone that you know in meatspace" but how is this enforced? I also recognize that requiring payment could help increase the trust level, and I recognize that members have to pay in some way (ads, fees, sponsors, privacy violations) in order to support the platform.
Did you read the article? The term "guild" was used, but what's being suggested sounded more to me like some kind of reputation management system. Something like the karma system here at HN.
> Would a guild system be perfect? Obviously not. Would it create new forms of exclusion? Probably. Would medieval Florentine weavers recognize the problem we're dealing with? I suspect they'd find it eerily familiar.
Still not a fan. If the author would've expanded a bit more on verification and not only trust I'd be more open. But this is just gate keeping and the opposite of open.
I have had the same problem. I studied some leetcode, but didn't feel motivated and never got very good at. Good enough to get an okay job, but nothing at a top-paying company. So you might want to take the approach that you don't need to get a job that requires a huge amount of of leetcode study; focus on networking or whatever.
If you feel you have no choice, though, I wonder if you could try to gather together a group of people who are in a similar situation, in order to do practice sessions. Each person could take turns explaining a leetcode problem on a whiteboard. It would give you interview practice, help you make networking connections, and hopefully make the task less boring and introduce an aspect of accountability. I think you'd have to be careful to make sure that the people involved were friendly and helpful, not make it about one-upmanship. Anyway, that is what I'd do today, if I had the problem that I needed to pass leetcode tests.
Actually, there is. You have to search for "pressure". For example, "Other Tests: There are some other things that are important to know as well. You must know your blood pressure".
> First time in my life I "chose myself" and quit a job instead of staying in something that was very negatively affecting my mental health
I'm responding because I also quit a job years ago to preserve my mental health, so your post resonates with me. When I quit, I was becoming increasingly depressed. I did not have a new job lined up. I did have several years of $$ runway. I also considered it an option to move to a cheaper COL area overseas, if needed, to keep afloat.
Since then, I've mostly taken gig work to provide for myself (freelance/consulting software development - mostly mobile app development, but also web app stuff).
I don't know how typical your experience was for "state work". If I were you, I might try to leverage my previous experience into a new state job, which might turn out better.
My answers to your bullet points aren't really relevant, since I left my last FT job over 10 years ago. But I'll give them anyway.
Locating: In one case, I got a referral from a friend who had interviewed with the company and didn't like the place (he was right, I was more desperate and took the offer). In all other cases, I found the job via a recruiter. However, I don't recommend using a recruiter, and I think you're better off using your network, if you have one. Using recruiters was unpleasant for me, to say the least. I'm not saying all recruiters are bad, just that the ones I interacted with were far from awesome. At least they got my foot in the door before pumping me for the interview questions on the way out the door.
Interviewing: I read a couple of books on interviewing, did a very small amount of l33t code style practice (which I found boring and didn't seem helpful). I looked for sample interview questions and practiced writing down responses. I think live in-person mock interviews would have been helpful, but I didn't have anyone to practice with. I looked back on my old jobs and tried to imagine creative ways of making it sound like I'd been a positive contributor (which I was, but sometimes you feel powerless to make much of an impact at the time, so everything you did seemed pointless looking back at it).
Surviving: My "job lifetime" - defined as how long I can stand a job without feeling like I'm going out of my mind - seemed to be about 1.5 to 3 years (the first 6 months is the honeymoon phase where I'm learning a lot, and then gradually I start to know what's what, and I get disillusioned). It seemed to decrease after each job, which is probably why I decided to go with gig work after my last position. I wish I could tell you about surviving, but I didn't "survive" my jobs very well. You might want to try gamifying things, something that never occurred to me at the time. Since you're planning to quit anyway, pretend that whatever you do doesn't much matter, and just do your job however you want (within reason - nothing illegal!) so that at least you are getting something out of it. Maybe this wouldn't have been possible with your old job. In my jobs, I definitely saw coworkers get away with things that I thought were "wrong," but were clearly tolerated by management, so I think I had more leeway than I realized at the time.
Take work less seriously? It's there to pay the bills. It's a waste of your time on earth, but you also probably don't want to be on the street, which would also be a waste of your time, and much more unpleasant. You might try gig work, if you can find it, and see if that agrees with you. Usually the gigs are a little more transactional, and sometimes you find ones that are actually fun with cool people. Churn is expected - no one finds it strange that you left a gig after 3 months.
You can take the opposite tack and try creating your own work out of what you love, a la Will Shortz https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Shortz
My feeling is that this is just not possible unless you're pretty narrowly passionate about one thing. And not everyone wants to make their passion into a profession.
Yes, you can still do that directly (I did that just the other day).
I can't entirely understand Google's announcement, but it almost sounded to me like they will forbid sideloading if you're not an "official" dev (gone through their hoops). I also saw something in their statement about wanting to support hobbyists. It sounded like an afterthought.
For those who are curious, this seems to be a link to the Philip K. Dick essay referenced in your comment:
https://philipdick.com/mirror/essays/How_to_Build_a_Universe...
"How to Build a Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later" (1978). It holds some interesting parallels to the current times.
There are people who are sick of social media and will never be convinced to join up again. They've already left the building and aren't looking for anything else. I'm not quite there, but almost.
Other people are using established social media simply because that's where their people and orgs publish. I am eternally frustrated when my local cafe uses Insta or FB for their "web presence", but I'm not going to be the one to convince them to use something else. I hate that my local rock climbing partner finder group is located on FB, but what can I do about it? I also think it sucks that there are thousands of people in that group - I soon realized that this group simply doesn't work for me, since rock climbing requires high trust and I can't trust thousands of people.
Many people resist the idea of signing up for yet another social media account, esp when none of their people/orgs are already there. For example, I've sometimes thought of starting a Heylo group for local rock climbers to find partners - this might actually help me find more climbing partners. But I've never tried it. I just don't think people will join. The barrier to entry is (1) install app (2) create login (3) use app. SFAICT no one wants to do this if they're already on FB and already are a member of the group there. Even people that I know manage finding partners with email lists (gag). Can you imagine how much higher the barrier to entry would be if adding (4) you have to pay a monthly fee?
I do like the idea of "only allowed to invite someone that you know in meatspace" but how is this enforced? I also recognize that requiring payment could help increase the trust level, and I recognize that members have to pay in some way (ads, fees, sponsors, privacy violations) in order to support the platform.
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