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@malisetti
Created October 20, 2019 16:32
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Letter to my fellow Software Engineers
I started working in mid 2012 as a software engineer for a multi national services company based in Bangalore as a post graduate from a very famed university from south India which was in 11th position when I started my studies there in the list of top engineering colleges in India. I graduated in 2012. Most of my classes felt like school mostly because of my department. Even in university campus I was not exposed to practical real world usages to sciences be it may any kind science. The internet was not accessible very easily at that time and exposure to online courses was limited to 0. I always dreamt of studying at Stanford some course related to computer science. I had to take work a job than study after 2012. Its not fair to study after getting a master's degree. I shouldn't say this but I was limited by my surroundings, society, everyone in colleges, my family and relatives, mostly everyone I know of. The thing is you have to work and earn somehow after you complete your education. This is true in ideal scenario where everyone's education is practical and insightful. Since I have attended some online courses like OCW's highlights of calculus I know how was it to study calculus in college. I can only imagine whats it to attend an average college in India where most of us is trying to be an engineer. My cousin brother's son has OOP concepts in his computer science syllabus in the 9th grade. What I learned from talking to his about this is that his teachers know shit.
Even after nearly 7 years of being in software industry I fail the first round of many job interviews. I've worked on servers which expose apis, deal with databases, iOS and android apps, have knowledge on different programming languages(go, js, php, java, c) and paradigms. I always keep my tabs on learning whats new in software industry. mostly through hacker news. I once developed an app which does message broadcasting to people around a location. I presently run a website called 8hrs.xyz where I can see all the articles that made it to hacker news front page in lat 8, 16 and 24 hours. Not seeing my peers small but most of them has any insight on industry but just working and working and make a living. Even the fucking governments don't care about us. Allowing private businesses to sell bullshit quality liquors, banning pine liquors, micro brewing, trying to control every aspect of our lives. Banning, restricting freedom to be anything, not controlling money grabbing in the name of education by private educational institutes, hospitals, not encouraging and providing employment but giving away free goodies like 1kg rice for 2/- rs, giving college reimbursements for certain students based on caste but not on financial status. I studied my schooling in govt aided institutes but never received any free text books or fee reimbursements because of my caste. My father had no job nor any land to cultivate or to have financial strength to do any kind of business.
It just feels meaningless to work the jobs that we don't like but have to do to survive in this fuycking Indian society. India has lot of issues. Not that I do not pay taxes but I see no changes toward equality. No country wants immigrants.
Some of friends moved to Canada and Australia, one guy I know is in America. Good for them. I want to see India move towards equality in my life time but I don't want to die wanting to see the thing. Most of the issues I read from the west are like some lady insulted a guy in a train because he is sitting by keeping legs a bit wider than she is in a sparsely occupied train. I wonder what they think of living in India where working is like a machine, pay taxes like a machine, travel like a machine, eat like a machine, be like a machine. America don't want us. Arabs wants us only as workers. Europe doesn't want us. Cant go to russia, china, remaining countries are also poor like India.
I like to think I am not here at all that I have no connection with anyone in this society. I hope my kids never have to live according to this society's rules.
@skull-squadron
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skull-squadron commented Oct 21, 2019

Thanks for writing this. For context, I'm from the San Jose area originally but worked with 5-6 IITians at a biomedical informatics department at Stanford. There are at least a few of things to unpack:

  1. Modern society is more distracted and encourages the atomization/isolation of people from each other. Apropos book Bowling Alone A compounding factor is dense urban areas where people move/commute to without intending to settle (Silicon Valley), the populous tends to treat relationships as unnecessary and/or disposable, so they don't meet their neighbors, aren't nice to other people and generally don't interact with others. This turns an area into a sterile, boring and soulless place. When I lived in Palo Alto, I knew probably one neighbor because of their crying baby. One of my roommates was quite awesome and we kept in touch for a good ten years or so.

  2. Given there are a zillion crappy jobs making the rich richer, why not look for a slightly less crappy job in a meaningful, necessary and/or organization that accomplishes net good? One of the IITians I worked with was essentially nihilist stockbroker who grew up with a dozen servants, but he became more of a nihilist Alzheimers researcher retaining an essential dickish quality (haha). There are more and more social enterprises, worker-owned co-ops and nonprofits who need a variety of technical and business disciplines.

  3. People are mostly the same the world around, it's what works best for you. Depending on how old you are, I hope you're able to move and choose your own tribe as it were.. mindset/attitude/culture that is what you are looking for in life.

  4. Maybe get into external consulting where you can travel to multiple countries and see different customers from the inside. McKinsey, Bain, BCG (MBB), Booz Allen Hamilton, BearingPoint, etc.

PS: There are some awesome Indian entrepreneurial organizations in Silicon Valley like TIE. Some of what you're feeling may also be partially due to the sociological/hive-mind collective attitude of people who aren't as successful / lack of hope. When you're surrounded by more hopeful people, self-confidence, but hopefully not hubris, seems like the default setting.

@jdh30
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jdh30 commented Oct 21, 2019

based on caste

Woah, that's not good. :-(

India has lot of issues.

FWIW, the UK has a lot of issues too.

No country wants immigrants.

The UK has a long history of immigration, particularly from India, and it has done our country a great deal of good. The only thing I see people objecting to here (myself included) is unsustainable mass immigration.

Most of the issues I read from the west are like some lady insulted a guy in a train because he is sitting by keeping legs a bit wider than she is in a sparsely occupied train.

The West has a very vocal minority of crazy people.

Europe doesn't want us.

If we ever Leave the EU, the UK will want you.

I like to think I am not here at all that I have no connection with anyone in this society. I hope my kids never have to live according to this society's rules.

Once I had enough experience I set up my own company. Founding a company in the UK only costs £100. I built and shipped my own products, taking responsibility for everything from marketing to customer care. I highly recommend it.

Good luck!

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