Why Is Everyone In Tech So Sad?

Aaron Horwath implements AI for a living, and in a good essay for Noema he asks why so many knowledge workers are losing faith in their careers: In coffee shops and in the low-lit corners of bars, professionals are sharing dreams of “disappearing” or “living on a farm somewhere” or “going off the grid.” These aren’t fantastical daydreams; they are visions of escape shared in a tone that betrays an underlying existential angst, a fundamental doubt about work and careerism inspired by a seemingly increasingly common experience: waking up one morning at an existential precipice, struck with a sudden sense that knowledge work is, and perhaps always has been, pointless. It’s definitely worth reading the whole thing if you find yourself in the same situation. He mentions two concepts that feel super relevant right now: Workism is Derek Thompson’s term for the way work has become the place we look for the meaning that earlier generations got from religion. The spectacle comes from the French…