Exploitation

This is another one of my cheerful posts about the state of the world – as I see it.

This time it was triggered by an article by Cringely The Coming Microsoft Cultural Revolution. In it he links to a pep-talk by Microsoft’s new CEO. It’s worth a quick read. As Cringely says, it is slickly written – but contains little of substance.

It’s the kind of fluff that sickened me about Silicon Valley – and caused it to kick me out of the nest. Fortunately, I was able to spread my little wings and land safely. In that way, it did me a favor.

The Computer Industry has very particular requirements for the people it will accept – but the main one is that you love the way it is. And do your best to make it even more lovable – whether it is worth loving or not. You have to pretend that it is.

And one other thing – whatever the company is doing, it has to be broken. Limitless amounts of work can go into a project – but, in the last analysis, it must never work right. But you must never, never notice this – upon pain of death. Which means, in this context, that you become unemployable. Without a paycheck, and the identity it confers, you might as well be dead.

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