We live in capitalism where all labor is commodized and alienated. All work sucks. 99% of white collar work is bullshit. Anything tied to “meaning” is overworked, underpaid, and likely stressful. Plus, any passion will be snuffed out if you’re doingit as a job.

The optimal way to survive as a prole is to make as much money for the least work as possible. White collar STEM jobs are well-suited for this purpose; it’s why I personally pursued an engineering degree (in addition to the fact I enjoyed math and science). If I studied and did what I was truly “passionate” about—philosophy, history, guitar, languages—I would have fucked up my life. Instead, I do wageslavery for 8 hours a day which I’m good at and can somewhat tolerate, and I aggressively pursue passions during my freetime to avoid severe depression (kew word: severe; depression is still there lol). I was like you when I was fresh out of college: incredulous at how shit working actually is. Now this is going to sound depressing, but with time you get used to the drudgery…

This is admitely lib copium, but look into FIRE (retire early). Personally it keeps me focused and gives me some purpose to getting up everyday to push papers; i.e. to one day be able to fuck off to mexico or something with 300k and just not work anymore. It’s admitedly copium but it does help—a man needs hope.

I feel you. You will never do the most meaningful work for a company or firm under capitalism. Engineering as a discipline is perverted under capitalism. You will not feel fulfilled from your engineering job alone, that’s true for 95% of engineers in the US.

I don’t have any advice, but it does feel better to know we’re all on the same page :red-fist:

Of the engineers I know, most eventually sold out to become business yuppies or finance bros. One became an architect which is pretty tight. One douche actually really liked his gig of being employed by a mining firm, cuz he got to see all the big trucks and make fun of the overworked miners while being on the inflated white-collar payroll of the extraction industry. But he decided that it wasn’t exploitative enough to make the weekly flights to the middle of nowhere worth it, so he switched to finance and became a crypto bro. God that dude sucks.

I picked the discipline explicitly for optimizing treat making and hated it so much. Like the curriculum was easy (or at least easier than the others) but also…kinda evil? The recoil kicked me left at least, and I managed to go a little different career-wise thankfully. Sad to hear the other side may have also been a trap.