The Company Man
Posted3 months agoActive3 months ago
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calmmixed
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SatireTech CultureRationalism
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Satire
Tech Culture
Rationalism
The story 'The Company Man' is a satirical piece that critiques the tech industry and rationalist movement, sparking discussions about the author's writing style, the themes of the story, and the cultural context it critiques.
Snapshot generated from the HN discussion
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Active discussionFirst comment
2h
Peak period
11
6-8h
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Based on 55 loaded comments
Key moments
- 01Story posted
Oct 1, 2025 at 4:47 PM EDT
3 months ago
Step 01 - 02First comment
Oct 1, 2025 at 6:35 PM EDT
2h after posting
Step 02 - 03Peak activity
11 comments in 6-8h
Hottest window of the conversation
Step 03 - 04Latest activity
Oct 3, 2025 at 12:12 AM EDT
3 months ago
Step 04
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Analyzing up to 500 comments to identify key contributors and discussion patterns
ID: 45443298Type: storyLast synced: 11/20/2025, 3:41:08 PM
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> Some people confess guilt to claim credit for the sin.
*clutches pearls, faints onto nearby divan*
https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/fartcoin/
Fartcoin hasn't been doing that well though, I had to check the date of the article and it is recent. Maybe he got in Fartcoin long ago in early Nov. 2024? 200x since then but only a 2x since the end of Nov. 2024.
My main problem isn't AI though, it's the structure of the anti-competitive tech sector; which is itself driven by the structure of the monetary system in which it operates.
AI is just yet another tool, like crypto, and other distractions which may be used to further disenfranchise me and others. I don't feel bad about other people because I've been a victim myself and as a tech person, I also get the privilege of being labelled as part of the oppressor class, while being oppressed by them... While working one of the most competitive and mentally-taxing jobs in the history of humanity... Seeing the harms, understanding the problems, seeing the solutions but being so powerless that I'm literally forced to work for the oppressor.
I feel too much pain to feel any guilt. I can totally relate to the comment about 'nice colleagues' but I understand it's a very superficial concept, unfortunately. Our world is so dystopian, even kindness is turned into a weapon. Their kindness is partly what holds this incredibly violent system together as it strengthens bonds between the elites which protect the system. Kindness, kinship and filter bubbles combine to form a moat around a global monopoly on power, violence and opportunities; causing the most unjust, asymmetric treatment of humans in the history of mankind. Topped with layer upon layer of gaslighting which looks more and more disturbing and unbelievable as you move down the social hierarchy and lose your voice and power. We have a system where every person lives in a different reality and yet pretend to live in the same reality. People communicate with words but nobody shares the same understanding of the words; that's how bad the situation is.
> the most unjust, asymmetric treatment of humans in the history of mankind.
Things are not perfect but I think we're very far from the worst in history. Things used to be way worse for most humans for most of the history of mankind. I would say unfortunately we aren't going straight "up and to the right" in terms of human happiness, well being, a better world, but that's the nature of things, there are ups and downs. I think things can and will still work out (climate, geo-politics, AI, economy etc.) if we do our little bits. Look for the good things and we'll work on the bad things.
Getting less screen time and more time with people and outdoors can help with perspective. It's easy to get sucked in doom and gloom on the Internet. Happens to me.
People do abuse words but I think we can still communicate just fine. We just need to do a better job of explaining in detail what we're talking about.
It's interesting that you talk of yourself as being the oppressor class while thinking of yourself of being oppressed. I think that shows the limits of this line of thinking. Most would probably consider you "elite" as well. We're all just people I think is the easy answer there. I'm not jealous for a second of any "elite", I'm sure they have the same human struggles (or even worse) as all of us.
Hope you can get over your pain, try and get some help if that makes sense to you.
I'm definitely not 'elite' even though I've been a software engineer for 15 years, I was very unfortunate. Just imagine doing everything right but everything that's outside of your control going terribly wrong. That's what happened to me. I know others in the industry who had it worse but there is no consistency in experience.
The fact that you assume that because I've been a software engineer for 15 years, that it means I wasn't struggling financially the whole time is telling. It's what I meant when I said that we speak the same words but they don't mean the same thing. You assume software engineer means someone who is well-off. You don't know what country I'm from. I tell you, if you're outside of the US, the experience of being a software engineer has been VERY different. I'm based in Australia but I lived in Europe for several years (which was a horrible idea career-wise).
I have a friend from India. I'm jealous of him. His salary relative to cost of living is incredible. He can live like a king in his own country. I had some colleagues from Poland; they can buy their own houses/apartments working remote and living in their own countries. Meanwhile, I don't have the legal right to own property in those cheap countries, not even mentioning language barriers. I can't afford a deposit on a house in my country. I could never afford. Impossible to find a house or even apartment under $1 million. I've been living paycheck to paycheck. I struggled hard and only just managed to save like $30k in assets over 15 years working nights and most weekends on side projects. I'm running like 5 full-featured, working side projects concurrently none of them making money currently. I did get passive income from one of them for about 3 years but then was basically cheated out of it by a whole group of powerful people in crypto sector. Literally a conspiracy to discredit and defame me within my community, without any apparent justification and no basis in fact; just before COVID happened; I became somewhat paranoid because of this... Then COVID and ensuing political environment just poured fuel on the fire.
Just stop. Turn them off. Don’t renew the domains. People think that nothing should ever disappear from the internet, ever, but they can either pay you or shout into the void. You owe the tech world nothing.
There needs be a reason to give up something. I cannot find any such reason. If I gave up on it, my entire worldview would collapse and I don't know what monster I would turn into.
I mean, in a historical context, things have been worse for almost everybody except a tiny percentage of the population and even they had issue that you treat easily today. For example if you're based in the AU, then you have affordable healthcare without the risk of bankruptcy. You don't have parasites. You don't have infections. Even though you feel broke, you live as well as or better than the historical merchant class.
>Meanwhile, I don't have the legal right to own property in those cheap countries
I mean, this is part of why housing is cheap in those countries. Treat housing like an asset, and don't be surprised why it's expensive.
As someone that works in software for the transportation sector, I find it hard to believe this generalizes for the population of each profession. The last few years have been really rough for the transportation business, with rates near rock bottom. Combine this with having to be on the road all the time, the lifestyle of being on the road for a lot of drivers, and you couldn't pay me to do it. I'm quite happy working from the quiet home office.
I plan to mirror any future fiction there.
I haven't written much but my next-best stories are likely these:
The Maker of MIND: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/H4kadKrC2xLK24udn/the-maker-...
The Liar and The Scold https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/duF4Qh9pn7Y5imhsm/the-liar-a...
Of the two, I prefer The Maker of MIND. Both got similar karma on LessWrong and were written ~2021.
> I read a work of great insight on the corrosive effect of irony on American culture, critiquing it as a kind of anesthesia poisoning the pop cultural artifacts out of which the American soul is now woven.
Aarden in Dutch means "earth" or "earthly", and Vox in Latin means "voice." So his name kinda means "voice of Earth" -- which seems appropriate, given his motivation for working on The Project.
Esther is just a reference to the novel I Smell Esther Williams, which I was reading when I was writing the story. And it is referenced in the DFW essay the protagonist inverted the message of.
As for Krishna, I just thought the line "granting me an unwariness that allows me to ask such things of Krishna" was amusing, so named him Krishna.
https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/every-bay-area-house-party
Disappointed at: >It wouldn't have worked anyway
Feedback:
Motivation comes from "this stuff is nuts, but it could work"
Meaning from: "That was nuts, but it worked"
Between the two, it's a chore to get a bunch of homsaps to agree on exactly what is nuts OR what's possible. AI could definitely help with sanity checking the contentious stuff without always giving great reasons so that we may cross it off either of two lists quick.
(Governments need a third list for prioritising the new instances of Thomas Midgley Jr to put in the airlock)
> I am already feeling tipsy from my second pint of Guinness
The comments under it on LW are a wasteland of incomprehension.
> There is little less interesting than another man's drug trip. Unfortunately, he's both Arden Vox and my boss, so I try my best to appear fascinated.
Almost immediately you know you’re in good hands.
It kind of reminds me of Krazam's YouTube skits, but in long-form writing.
EDIT: I kind of wanted more from the ending, though. It wrapped up surprisingly quick.
this is the type of magical writing that an LLM can't capture a single iota of.
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