Most software frankly isn't really important. It might make or break a company, but that's a pretty limited fault ___domain; humanity will be fine.
This post is about something that is glaringly more obvious & important than that. The pressure here is immensely real, the need & overwhelming desire to do better, to make it good is flashing in bright neon signs to me, is extrinsically vital. I don't see any of that recognition written in to your privilege-call-out. To me, it's really hard hearing something so vital to the entire technology world (https://hn.algolia.com/?query=wasm&sort=byDate shows 32 submissions in the past 22 days, and misses all those posts using "webassembly" instead of wasm) is a poorly supported train-wreck, rampant with infighting, with garden-variety shitty management not doing much to support this vital endeavor. The typical salt-of-the-earth engineers being left to their own devices & expected to just chug along is not a "normal" I'm comfortable with for such a vital cornerstone of modern technology.
You're making this out to be a story about software development & privilege. But I have a very very very different view of this as a much more indicative tale, of how core common capacities humanity is building have a very hard time making it along. I think we all have challenges, for sure, but this is a work that so much hope & aspiration is pinned upon, that so much else is launching upon. Focusing on dis-empathy for the individual is not my take here.
> My hope is that this story will help people recognize toxic cultures in their own workplaces
This is the part I'm commenting in reply to. I simply don't see the justification of "toxic" in the environment described (I think it's definitely dysfunctional and callous) and took issue with the stated goal for others to use this experience as an understanding of what constitutes "toxic".
This post is about something that is glaringly more obvious & important than that. The pressure here is immensely real, the need & overwhelming desire to do better, to make it good is flashing in bright neon signs to me, is extrinsically vital. I don't see any of that recognition written in to your privilege-call-out. To me, it's really hard hearing something so vital to the entire technology world (https://hn.algolia.com/?query=wasm&sort=byDate shows 32 submissions in the past 22 days, and misses all those posts using "webassembly" instead of wasm) is a poorly supported train-wreck, rampant with infighting, with garden-variety shitty management not doing much to support this vital endeavor. The typical salt-of-the-earth engineers being left to their own devices & expected to just chug along is not a "normal" I'm comfortable with for such a vital cornerstone of modern technology.
You're making this out to be a story about software development & privilege. But I have a very very very different view of this as a much more indicative tale, of how core common capacities humanity is building have a very hard time making it along. I think we all have challenges, for sure, but this is a work that so much hope & aspiration is pinned upon, that so much else is launching upon. Focusing on dis-empathy for the individual is not my take here.