The tech bubble may have exaggerating the monetary worth of the internet,
but the societal impact of these technologies is still more powerful
(and more difficult to predict) than any marketing drivel about robust
and scalable paradigms could ever convey.
I think it /is/ possible to do meaningful work within the for- profit tech
industry -- but it's hard. For one thing, most corporate cultures didn't
learn from the bubble, so they still put vesting harder above living well.
And for another, it can be difficult to see how your little project fits
into the big picture -- into the dream.
For me, anti-spam work (and e-mail foo in general) feels almost
sufficiently meaningful as long as I'm able to be part of the worldwide
conversations about improving the state of the Internet, rather than
stuck in an office by myself. It also helps that I watch industry trends
in search of that big picture.
(Having a big picture view also got me out of operations and into product
management, where I can actually influence things.)
A few years ago I was getting sick of the spam thing, but it's become
more exciting since then, so now I think I've got a few more years
to go before I'll feel like I'm done. After that, it'd be nice to do
something different.
That's all me, though. My career path seems fairly unique and
occasionally ill-advised; I've never found anyone else who did similar
things and got similar results.
One thing I can say, though, without any hesitation, is that it's often
important to take some time to think. If you, like me, need more than a
single weekend to wind down from the work week -- well, you probably need
more than a single weekend to decide your entire future career path too.
But I've never had the opportunity to just not work for a while, or even
to spend a lot of time off between jobs, so I don't know how far that
can go.
A few days ago, my friend Neil gave a brief answer to the question "Spamfighter, howcome you got into spamfighting?" I get asked that a lot, too -- and while my answers vary depending on my mood at the time (and usually go on way longer than the questi
Tracked: Oct 21, 10:11