CCF Archive Site

The problem is people don't really want to talk about anything. For someone to put you on a mailing list and than not give you 2 minutes to take you off says to me MEGA DOUCHE.

I think this board is slowly dying. Not sure what the problem is any more.

Quote from: ilconsiglliere on May 06, 2018, 08:01:20 am

The problem is people don't really want to talk about anything. For someone to put you on a mailing list and than not give you 2 minutes to take you off says to me MEGA DOUCHE.

I think this board is slowly dying. Not sure what the problem is any more.

I'm thinking at this point that rebooting this board or even trying to pivot as a career changer resource is a waste of time.

The problem I see in our age group (mid 40s and up) in technology people is extreme disengagement. Mental laziness, resignation, not having any focus, being content to molder, not planning anything. I see quite a bit of that with some in this crew here, frankly.

Endless debate and mental masturbation with no action - hallmarks of the lifer techie.

The lack of interest in topics on this board is due to the average technology person looking for a big fat $75/hr and up teat to suckle. No teat, no interest. We don't have high $ contracting to discuss any more. So nobody is interested.

I have one niece approaching 30 with no degree or much business experience, has had many "life problems" involving mumble mumble - you sure as hell would not respect her resume or her, uh, record.

And she is kicking ass as a commissioned furniture sales person and has a side business making floral arrangements for local weddings. She studies the videos of Gary Vaynerchuck for inspiration.

But our age group makes itself useless to ourselves and society through our nihilistic disengagement and expecting to find a perfect career or work-life balance.

I've had work friends my age who loosely fit the profile of members here, and slowly I stop calling them or attempting to socialize. One guy dropped out of programming 16 years ago when he was being harassed OTJ and slowly has lost his marbles... he's no fun to talk to because he's so disengaged, nothing is ever worth any effort to figure out or try for. Another guy, about my age, a tech writer, talked about freelancing, but he acts like setting up a fucking Paypal account is brain surgery he fully intends to get around to one day in a shining future.

It's genuinely depressing trying to inspire interest in people who have embraced giving up as a lifestyle.

If I were to replace this board with a page with a one line message it would say this:

You're a former techie and you're over 50 and jobless? Get off your ass and TRY SOMETHING already. Jesus!

Quote from: ilconsiglliere on May 08, 2018, 07:13:34 am

I have never been a true IT nerd. I was never very good at math and was never into some of the hobbies and interests that typical IT people were into. Examples include dungeons and dragons, Star Trek, Star Wars, math, science and all the other things that IT people tend to be into. Many are also addicted to porn.

On top of this they also tend to have odd social skills and many are anti-social.  They would like to interact with NO ONE if they could.

I totally claim those characteristics in myself. I am a nerd, I am an original Star Trek fan, although never into D&D which was just starting when I was in high school, and I've had quite odd social skills during my heavy geek phase.

But one has to grow up sometime. And it's completely lazy to refuse to observe how others are living their lives.

And, self awareness is on the way to greater self knowledge. Most people are not self aware.  No growth and no movement is literally the definition of death.

As far as me not being a nerd - you didn't know me 20+ years ago. Before about 2003 I was as aspie retard as they come. A large part of me still screams that people are always the problem and that things won't come at you by themselves and hurt you for spite but people will do so.

The other big current thread on this site at the thread about men's support forums where we segued into being connected through niche identities is relevant to this thread. Hobbies, pastimes, subject interests, and geek fixations can all be used to create tribal identities. Along with race, national origin, language, and other aspects.

Past military service. Generically it's a pretty good peer group when it's service members from a specific country. Even more social cohesion among members of particular branches of service. And the ultimate social affiliation happens between guys (or women) who were in the same units, squadrons, camps, outposts, etc.

For instance, a video on a Youtube channel I subscribed to about affordable performance cars - the guy has one video where he discusses "normies" or non-car people, people who don't care about performance. He uses the word "normies" and humorously uses a Pepe meme of holding a shotgun at his own head. (He was doing this to segue into discussing budget cars at a certain price point.) In other words, "normies who aren't into cars, kill yourselves." (I laughed my ass off with his performance.)

The point here being that car enthusiasts consider their interest level a sign of distinction and brotherhood.


Many church cultures are quite similar.

Programming can be both like a religion calling as well as a shared interest tribe. Outsiders are considered stupid, unknowledgeable, uncultured, not as worthy, and less-than. The tribalism in programming can extend to programming niches... lightweight vs heavyweight "bare metal" developers.

Or, ideological groupings. I think the Trump presidency and the alt-right galvanized a lot of middle-income and middle class whites into a feeling of belonging and cared for that they get nowhere else. (DON'T turn this into a political thread. Just using as an example.)

Lastly, perception of shared hardship adds a lot of social cohesion. Military is (in my opinion) the absolute tops for this. Blacks and some other minorities may experience fellowship through feeling of shared hardship. Programmers are the grown up equivalent of the nerd's table in the high school cafeteria.

The shared hardship may be a huge barrier to acceptance of an outsider.

Maybe people naturally seek identity thereby inducting themselves into a distinct peer group, for mutual admiration, protection and fellowship.

The Youtube channel is "Bladed Angel". Mostly about cars. His stuff is hilarious and informative. I can't find the video with the kill yourself shotgun meme. I went BWAH HAH HAH! when that came on.

Tribes have always been around - I think most of us just don't realize how tribal humans are and how universal tribes are, and it's generally not a bad thing. Think of lodges, fraternities, alumni, hometown sports teams. I suspect that the premise of the book "Bowling Alone" (which I never read) may stem from the lack of ways in which average people can connect through incidental social groupings.

What the elites and globalists have done is weaponize tribalism as a way to mutually antagonize groups that otherwise wouldn't really care about each other.

Sic:  I never gave two shits about gay people nor judged their lifestyle. I've known some great gays who were friends. And, gays of each sex have historically been very tribal. But what the cultural right-left war has done is weaponize the differences such that many gays are now convinced that someone who is alt-right wants to shove them into a gas chamber, when actually we don't care about them anyway.

IE, one niece is gay and she is convinced that as a Trump supporter I will automatically disapprove and reject her, so SHE is doing the rejecting of the entire family. What was a concern is weaponized into fully realized alienation and I didn't do a Goddamned thing to make it happen.