I suppose it is time to write about why I quit "the industry". It's been a bit more than half a year, any immediate reactions I might have had have faded with more permanent thoughts remaining.

"The industry" is perhaps best explained as working with computers in environments where computers are the focus of activity. This is a bit different from working with computers in environments where the computers support some other activity, the outcomes of which (product or service) can be separated from the computing.

This distinction is likely important because of the impact I believe it has had on my relationship with the tools and practices of the trade.

I started getting paid for this kind of work in 1987. I worked in support, system administration, management of system administrators, software development, and though I resisted the title software architecture. I think it is fair to say I was well regarded.

I was lucky that by the time I felt the need to quit I had been compensated well enough that it was possible for me to do so without significant hardship. I am, and have been, extremely privileged throughout my career.

Generative AI killed that career. Towards the end, I was asked to replace my thoughtful activity with ill-gotten slop. My prior activity was supported by my unique relationship with the tools and practices learned and refined over a long career of identifying patterns and differences. That experience, though shareable, was never fungible.

There's no reason to re-litigate the negatives of the LLM systems that have emerged in the last decade. You either agree that the costs are relevant or you don't. If you don't, there's nothing I can say to you about "externalities" that will change your mind. But you should change your mind.

I was already frustrated by several years of buyouts and reorganizations emphasizing the C-level misunderstanding of individual value and expertise. GenAI was the final straw. Simply put, if my labour is considered fungible, then you can't have it.

Few people can make that choice. If labour really were fungible, and LLMs really could do labour well, then everyone could. But it's not like that, is it?

So I left. I'm living a life of quite contemplation. I do some rock climbing and clay-making. I'm learning how to make a good raised bed in the garden.

It's a good life but I'm not entirely happy about it. I was deeply embedded in the optimism about disintermediation and democratised publishing born in the early web and FLOSS days. I did a lot to move those things forward but it now feels like it was for worse than nothing. We built the tools that have now enabled extraordinary systems of mediation, centralisation, mediocrity, and mendacity. It sucks.

Maybe I could have stuck around and tried to make things better, but I'm afraid that this time around the better, if it comes at all, is going to come after things get worse. Especially while mostly-old, mostly-white, mostly-rich, mostly-male people are making a mess of the world.

I'm old enough that those better times may come after I'm gone. I'm tired enough that I'd rather hunker down in the garden with those raised beds and raise some vegetables. It's selfish, but it's where I'm at.

I live near the sea. I go to the clifftops or the beach to look out at the horizon and hope. The sea helps provide a balancing scale to the petty people problems we create for ourselves. The sea will be there long after us.