Having read most of it, I think it could use a better title. The actual title sounds like it is smearing all of tech culture as toxic. This is not true. Maybe something a little more qualified, like "If your tech company has a toxic culture, this is how to escape it."
I got more out of this than I expected to. It helps explain my reluctance to join groups marketed as for women in tech.
I have a Certificate in GIS. I'm a blogger and have been for years, which makes me tech savvy compared to a lot of people I know. I am pretty comfortable on HN. But I am not a programmer and I never managed to get a job in GIS and I do not self identify as a woman in tech. I self identify as a writer, though I still hope to learn to code and would like to write an app or game or similar.
The working for free thing. I wonder how much this is experienced differently by different demographics. I did a lot of volunteer work as a military wife. I have personally struggled with the fact that, yes, people tell me they value what I do, but, no, they don't want to pay me. Pats on the head doesn't keep food on the table.
I am increasingly reluctant to do volunteer work. I am willing to contribute to not for profits, but in recent months I have been very up front about limiting the scope of it.
I looked over a bunch of websites for a non profit and wrote up a list of changes that need to happen. If they ever give me login credentials, I am willing to do the initial overhaul. I am not willing to commit to ongoing maintenance.
I would like to see these websites improved. I am willing to role up my sleeves and do something to make that happen. I am not willing to become slave labor.
I think this is sort of an unrecognized dark underbelly of things like open source. Someone needs to do the work and there is no mechanism for paying them.
The older I get, the more reluctant I am to accept the idea that someone needs to do work that no one will pay for. If you don't value it enough to actually pay me, then maybe it isn't really something you need or deserve.
Yet there are things I am still willing to do that I have no idea how to monetize. I am working on launching a project currently to help people, including homeless people, figure out how to develop a flexible income. I have no plans currently to monetize it, nor even set up a non profit. It's just me and a website and an email list and tentative plans to hold in person meetings.
It isn't that I won't do stuff for free. But I am much more picky about it being something I want to do, not something someone else wants me to do. I increasingly look narrowly upon the latter form of volunteer work as a polite request for slave labor.
I got more out of this than I expected to. It helps explain my reluctance to join groups marketed as for women in tech.
I have a Certificate in GIS. I'm a blogger and have been for years, which makes me tech savvy compared to a lot of people I know. I am pretty comfortable on HN. But I am not a programmer and I never managed to get a job in GIS and I do not self identify as a woman in tech. I self identify as a writer, though I still hope to learn to code and would like to write an app or game or similar.
The working for free thing. I wonder how much this is experienced differently by different demographics. I did a lot of volunteer work as a military wife. I have personally struggled with the fact that, yes, people tell me they value what I do, but, no, they don't want to pay me. Pats on the head doesn't keep food on the table.
I am increasingly reluctant to do volunteer work. I am willing to contribute to not for profits, but in recent months I have been very up front about limiting the scope of it.
I looked over a bunch of websites for a non profit and wrote up a list of changes that need to happen. If they ever give me login credentials, I am willing to do the initial overhaul. I am not willing to commit to ongoing maintenance.
I would like to see these websites improved. I am willing to role up my sleeves and do something to make that happen. I am not willing to become slave labor.
I think this is sort of an unrecognized dark underbelly of things like open source. Someone needs to do the work and there is no mechanism for paying them.
The older I get, the more reluctant I am to accept the idea that someone needs to do work that no one will pay for. If you don't value it enough to actually pay me, then maybe it isn't really something you need or deserve.
Yet there are things I am still willing to do that I have no idea how to monetize. I am working on launching a project currently to help people, including homeless people, figure out how to develop a flexible income. I have no plans currently to monetize it, nor even set up a non profit. It's just me and a website and an email list and tentative plans to hold in person meetings.
It isn't that I won't do stuff for free. But I am much more picky about it being something I want to do, not something someone else wants me to do. I increasingly look narrowly upon the latter form of volunteer work as a polite request for slave labor.