Lee on comedy, me on technology

About a week ago I exited a profound shower and posted this on LinkedIn:

Of course the shower thoughts were more nuanced and reasoned, but instead of sitting on the long-form I wrote that; it summarises my raw feelings without the subtlety that perhaps they deserved. Last night I happened upon — thanks YouTube algorithm, you’re good for something! — an interview of the great Stuart Lee where he said the following about him becoming a comic back in the day and his perspective on it now:

Lee’s experiences and thoughts do not map to my own one-to-one, of course, but there are enough similarities such that I identify with the feelings.

I was drawn to electrical/computer engineering because I, in theory or ideally or naively, really only had to struggle with computer ‘issues’, and, perhaps, the laws of physics, but not with people ‘issues’. I don’t particularly enjoy most human interaction — which requires an ephemeral sense of comfort that is hard for me to conjure on demand — and the thought of self promotion makes me cringe, not to talk about actually doing it. Both of these things are necessary in order to “succeed”, particularly doing what I tried to do with Boldport, or getting a job, but it’s not what I’d choose to be doing.

Then, what my profession has enabled, quite clearly to me, as a whole, makes me sick. Social media companies (and the hardware that they require) with their cutthroat pursuit of profits, and complete disregard for society’s health, have directly allowed Trump, Netanyahu, Bolsonaro, Johnson, Musk, Altman, and other shits to manipulate themselves into powerful leadership positions. In what may seem irrational, I feel somewhat complicit in this by sheer professional association.

And if that’s not enough, AI came for the kill to take away any sense of pride in one’s work, reducing it to mere prompt circus fed to a bot. No more joy of discovery, no more satisfaction in creating nice clever things. What is the point?

So, like Lee, if I felt like I do today when I was choosing a profession I would probably not have gone into technology at all because I’d be disgusted. And, “I’m really glad that I got into it, got the best out of it, and loved it, before it turned into the sour load of shit it is today!” :D.

⁂

The flip side, fortunately or not, is that I’m still an engineer who loves the craft; it’s on a slow burn inside of me waiting to burst out when conditions are just right. It could be when I actually commit to writing the book or two I’m itching to get out there, or the next iteration of PCBmodE, or the right job, or whatever. Or it could be never. I’m actually in a very good place either way.