Gravitating Towards What Your Role in Society May Be (or What You're Truly Good At)
In the 1980s Richard Stallman was a programmer. An ordinary "dork" of MIT. He was no "philosopher" or movement builder; in interviews (decades later) he confessed that he had never envisioned being an "activist" or having the skills required or ever seriously aiming to do so. It just kind of... happened. He sort of "discovered" that in himself.
That very much reminds me of Daniel Pocock. A Computer Scientist hailing from Australia, he become an exposer of all sorts of scandals because of things he had witnessed inside communities. Sure, the people he exposes will mock and try to intimidate him. It's always like that...
20+ years ago I described myself as a prolific activist or advocate for GNU/Linux. Over time I focused more and more on corporate corruption, with a growing focus on policy, especially regarding patents (irrespective of any particular continent). Here in Techrights some of the community assumed greater control over political news picks and my wife leads when it comes to GNU/Linux news curation - I mostly follow up with some commentary. About 10% of my time is spent on litigation (mostly writing about it), another 10% is coordinating in the community (Techrights 'behind the scenes' became like a "glue" that helps connect or federate several disparate communities/sites), about 20% of my time is spent researching news/long articles, and the rest is spent editing and publishing (writing articles does not take so long, but it makes no sense to publish a bunch of words unless they convey something new, meaningful, and accurate). This means I became an editor (my signature 20 years ago said "Freelance Journalist"; it was changed to "Editor" about 10 years ago) - a person who assesses what's being sent our way and digests it before coming up with summaries and inter-connected analysis/analyses (cross-referencing where it seems apt). Everything is connected one way or another. It helps to have a good sense or knowledge (at least general awareness) of many different aspects/facets - more so access to people who can explain it to you in more technical terms. We've got that.
Being an editor suits me, I think. It's also what I enjoy doing. Community-building isn't always easy because people (or groups) fight one another and sometimes one gets sandwiched between them (for instance, gay people who criticise trans people and vice versa; you don't want to get caught in the middle).
Doing Techrights is still lots of fun. It is highly rewarding on many levels (except financially). Thankfully, as of this month, we have two high-profile barristers dealing for us with legal matters and also a Director of a law firm - a person whom I have great respect for and a high opinion of. This means I can better focus on what really matters to Techrights and always mattered to Techrights.
Next month we have some good news (professional) and I should have a new nephew. Months later this site turns 20 and I intend to keep exposing corruption, not limited to institutions like the EPO and corporations like IBM. We have a wide array of whistleblowers and this ensures we have a steady flow of exclusive and impactful stories. Our pipeline of stories is already overflowing and it's not getting smaller/narrower; some stuff is so abundant that it'll take several years to exhaustively cover and have an effect it deserves. Despite us publishing at a faster pace than ever before. Speed isn't the most important thing, it is just a side effect.
Techrights wants to thank David Allen Green for doing pro bono work that laid our foundation of trust, courage, and uncompromising stance that prioritises whistleblowers, suppressed truth, women's rights (and safety) etc. David also helped connect us with people at the highest tier in the UK; they've protected us. We're unafraid.
In my teens I was a programmer, by age 20 I realised that I loved writing words as much as I loved coding (I was told I was good at communicating ideas), in my 30s I was already getting a lot of exclusive stories (people learned they can trust me to protect them) and now I envision spending a decade or more doing more of the same because I believe I've found what I'm good at. The "sense of purpose" thing comes to mind. It's not just a myth.
RMS is good at being a visionary who gives public talks (where he pays careful attention to every word used), he needn't develop Emacs anymore. In a sense, he found his vocation, that's why his haters try so hard to cancel (as in deplatform) his talks. They didn't succeed and he'll soon give a talk in a large auditorium in Switzerland, then in Germany.
Do what you like; if you're good at it, happiness will come.
I am very glad I turned away from GAFAM headhunters; or the job offer I got from London in 2003. I spent a lot of time speaking to much older people before realising it would merely be wasted potential.
Some people realise the same when it's too late in their "careers" (homes, mortgages, kids and so on).
Let's take IBM as an example because of Red Hat. To many of us in the GNU/Linux 'spheres', Red Hat was once considered a "dream job". Some people I spoke to said so; they were disappointed to see what Red Hat had become (we'll run a story about this topic one day). It's like SUSE under Novell, basically somewhat of a Microsoft subsidiary before and after the 2006 patent deal. Red Hat is selling slop, not Linux; SUSE was selling Mono (.NET), not Software Freedom. All about rhetoric and optics. "Is it safe to accept a job offer from IBM?" somebody asked some hours ago, saying: "I have two job offers that I am considering, and one is from IBM consulting services. Great company but with so many of the big firms laying off by the 10’s of thousands, it gives me pause to accept the IBM offer. Any insights about job stability?"
"I joined 5 years ago," somebody replied. "IBM offer was lower compared to what I was making before but I joined. The problem. The long tenure IBMer will earn less as the annual raise is low. The problem: my new manager thinks that I should not more calling it fair. Now I am on a personal improvement plan. May be in a month out. Don't look at the offer Price. Count the friends you will need. I never look at my pay check. The issue. my manager looks at mine."
Many IBMers already realise that they spent years if not decades of their lives working on mostly meaningless products/projects; telling people you were an "IBMer" is no badge of honour, either. IBM is widely regarded as a crappy employer, just like GAFAM jobs are perceived as evil. █
Image source: Dog in coach station