Contrary to what your product manager says, most engineers aren't un-creative. They're human beings, so they're naturally creative. What I feel most people are, actually, is scared. 

I'm scared, too, as I write this. I'm scared because I know what it's like to be in the tech industry and afraid of crossing certain lines. There are things you just don’t do, like talking shit about a bad former employer - even if your employer had a global scandal for scamming customers, throwing extravagant post-layoff parties, and other crap that didn't make the TV show. 

The idea that "engineers aren't creative, give them a task to do and they'll do it," espoused by some idiot product and engineering leaders, is a self fulfilling prophecy. Sadly, it's reinforced by many perf processes: if a dev is evaluated on their ability to execute a task that someone else defines, scopes, and validates, then there is no need for a human being. 

This is why you're replaceable by claude code. 

Creativity requires risk, which thankfully is also the thing that will help you thrive in ever-changing conditions, like the ones we're all in right now.

You'll thrive in your environment if you execute from your unique vantage.

This might mean working at odds with what you’re told to do, at times. It might mean getting better at advocacy and using your voice.

I love solving problems with software and communicating via code. That's not why I lost interest in engineering at startups.

I lost interest because I didn't like the feeling that my insight & creativity across a broad range of domains was totally useless to "doing well" in my role.

Meanwhile, I was getting discouraged by all these external factors:

• disconnected and impulsive leadership who had no finger on the pulse

• seeing my coworkers's needs not being met

• my aliveness and sense of purpose getting squashed out of fear of being cast out if I didn't "do well"

Probably more than most, I actually really tried to work these things out at the various places I worked. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. But I found meaning and aliveness in the dialogue, the attempts, the exploration. 

There's no reason your professional life can't also be a playground.

What would you choose to do or say if the threat of loss wasn't looming over you?

The other day I had someone use the word "hallucinate" to indicate "I'm just guessing at something without knowing the facts." That's new.

Depending on the subculture you're in, maybe not. Many of my peers are in a bubble that feels that AI advancement and the impact it has on our work & lives is the only thing happening.

The thing is, when you're in a subculture bubble you may not see the bubble for what it is. We've been talking about the SF tech bubble as long as I've been out here, over a decade. It took stepping out of it to see the thin film that protects most of my friends and former peers from the externalities of our industry.

Bubble cultures promote quietly hiding away your genuine perspectives and contradictory self because it's more advantageous to find a way to fit in.

That's a bullshit strategy, not just because it sucks on a spiritual level, but because these market conditions are temporary and a bit artificial, and we're all acting like they're not. Don't just take my word for it, the news is going around.

All you need to do is remember that "what VCs are interested in" is a great meta for making a quick buck and buying a home in the peninsula hills but it's not a solid long-term path to life satisfaction or global cultural and societal innovation.

That's why you got into all this, right?

I still think of the friend of mine who became an early OpenAI employee because he was sad he missed the crypto craze.

I was sad to see a smart and loving person knowingly walk right into another craze.

My aim here isn't to shame anyone, there’s genuinely no contempt here. I just want to amplify the quieter voices out there, the ones you yourself might be putting aside because of fear of exile or losing your livelihood.

As a culture, we are all socialized into scarcity. We are conditioned to seek financial reward for ourselves and our descendants. This leads to us making decisions that elevate us materially but leave us suppressing and denying our wholeness. Your body carries the residue of suppression for years.

What would you do with your life if you saw every being born on earth as a descendant?

If you were to more deeply listen, what would you say these times are asking for from us?

In a world that is increasingly becoming uncertain, I'd advocate we should move away from "survive by making myself useful to the system," and towards "grow my ability to thrive without the comfort and validation that previously scaffolded my life."

It's not a journey for the faint of heart. But we must be ready for it. What choice do we have?

We're already being organized by an algorithm. Recall the thought experiment of Roko's basilisk, the AI overlord of the future that would travel back in time to punish anyone who doesn't contribute to its becoming.

In that reality, your choices are to:

• help the basilisk be created

• perish and suffer

Roko's demon has been here the whole time, and its name is Capitalism. It's the system of domination and labor that teaches us all to be good schoolkids, good soldiers, good employees, lest we face our greatest fear of being left behind, of exile, of the loss of safety.

I've been living outside the system for half a decade now, and let me tell you: there is more safety for me out here than there was inside it.

A "good engineer" keeps their head down, writes good tests, doesn't have feelings, communicates cleanly in their pull requests, eats dinner at the office, can estimate how long a coding task will take effectively.

These days, a "good engineer" uses AI extensively and spends more tokens than their colleagues.

A "good engineer" will not be a successful world-builder.

A "good engineer" will not help the company survive a financial crash.

A "good engineer" is not going to stop a genocide.