I got an email about resistance

This will be kind of an unusual post. I got a recent email about my writing that I thought was such a good articulation of one common criticism that I’d like to share it (and my response) in full. Here’s the email, from William Murray1: Hey Sean, I have enjoyed your writing but your recent essays frustrate me. You say that getting paid for deep thinking in software is coming to an end. You even admit that it makes you sad. But in the name of “usefulness” you refuse to rock the boat. The way I see it, if you are right there are only two reasonable responses, pursue other work or resist. You present your elegiac approach as mature / pragmatic / realistic. I’d call it complicit. You know when Willy Wonka says, There’s no earthly way of knowing Which direction we are going There’s no knowing where we’re rowing Or which way the river’s flowing Is it raining, is it snowing? Is a hurricane a-blowing? — uh! Not a speck of light is showing So the danger must be growing Are the fires of Hell…