Humanity is lost...

Not sure where it goes, debate it will be for sure!

I am an avid Slashdotter and came across some ranting about missing 100M$ in facebook stocks cause the guy got fired and learned lessons from it. So far so good.

Some things happens in life, some people do not understand. I get it. But this is still burning me from inside. After living in somewhat fiscal hell (still not rural africa), I opened up to a very large community (slashdot) and got what you will see as answer:

Original article:

"Noah Kagan, a former Facebook product manager, has written a brutally honest article about how and why he got fired from Facebook in 2006 and what he learned from it. The experience must be particularly painful, given that it eventually cost Kagan a $100 million fortune."

My response:

1. First job, not even out of college, I got sucked into a marketing firm that was doing ... okay... And I invested time (a lot) to make things going from ok to profitable. I n exchange I was supposed (no contract... I was naive) to inherit 50% of company. I even worked over 100 hours per week sometime, no overtime charged, only vacation 1/1. All that just above minimum wage.

2. I changed jobs 10 years after because the first company got bankrupt. But at that point I was exhausted, as in depression exhausted. I rided it for over a year (good pay, good insurance plan etc...) but not two. When I finally fell, I was unable to work for over a year. That is when I decided to move to the country, no matter what, cause I cant stand stress anymore. Even to that day.

3. I worked as #in representative for a clothing company based in my new home town. Middle of the wood to be precise. But it was a family business, and the niece of the big boss was my boss and she knew I was more competent than her. Felling cornered, shed cornered me out of a job using clever and subtile subterfuges.

4. I am currently unemployed, developped a C++ library to handle fuzzy inputs (ai principles applied to user inputs to resolve them in certain time), and no one would employ me around because I have the tag "depression" hangned around my neck. I will probably go to work again in couple weeks as labor for a cheese factory, me, professional of communication products and hobby programming guru. Life is a bitch... as they say. Is it your bitch? That is the question. Enjoy my rant!

And I got this somewhat meaningful answer:

Do they have an employee discount? It will come in handy when you'd like something to pair with your whine.

I jumped in using my true to god story story to tell people it is not so bad after all, what the original author was describing, some are in much more trouble after all... and the best answer I got was [quoted above]. Is humanity reduced to a simple spreadsheet analysis? Or is there something else beyond our eyes?

I am strong now and realize it is not a personal attack, or I discard it as not being such. I am still wondering what ATS have in mind about this kind of online attitude. So, let you loose and answer in masse!

Original article: article...
My comments: comment...

The person that wrote that response was probably trolling to make themself feel better. Don't read into it too much. It's an inane comment from someone with nothing better to do and nothing positive to add to your reply.

Chin up

reply to post by gagol


My theory is that the internet overloads us with information that people would naturally feel bad about, so to protect themselves, a lot of people just don't care when confronted with other people's hardship.

The internet is no place to get sympathy and share real life hardships IMHO, except in dedicated places like messageboards dealing with exactly that kind of problems. Not because people shouldn't care, it's just a fact that they'll rather make a joke at your expense.

It's kind of like a badbeat-story to a pokerplayer. I've never met anyone who ACTUALLY care how unlucky you were to loose your money.

I get the point, not only is it Internet, but it is Slashdot I am talking about. It is just great to have your point of view on the subject.

reply to post by gagol

There is a quote by C.S.Lewis which best describes what I am trying to make my attitude be:

It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which,if you say it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree helping each other to one or the other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilites, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all of our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations — these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit — immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.

What the hell did you expect on slashdot? Realllllly?

How the heck do your prospective employers know youre depressed anyway?