Post-Academia Intellectual Stagnation

Are there any lains who have or are currently experience issues adjusting to the lack of intellectual challenges following finishing school and starting their career? If so, what were/are they and how did/are you dealing them? to expand upon the question: For me, about a year ago, I finished getting a master's degree in computer science, and went on to get a job doing software development. Everything is fine job-wise, stable, easy work, but compared to the research and development I was doing as a grad student, it's intellectually unfulfilling. Gone from spending 40+ hours a week contributing to the field of computer science and doing research and development that stimulated me to 40 hours of simple dev work for enterprise software and meetings. Obviously, I can, and do, have some personal projects that are stimulating, but nowhere near the amount of time to put into them, and I haven't been able to adjust to that. I think the stimulation I had in grad school helped to combat depression, as well, and without it, I've been having more depressive episodes. So what about lain? Have you experienced anything similar?

you had something that motivated you, scientific advancement. Now that is no longer a socially accepted way to spend your time. This is simply a consequence of life under capitalism. Find something else that makes you fulfilled. I would recommend avoiding making that your job... it's really sad to derive your basic self-worth from your job. Maybe start a family or something. And of course, you should try to keep studying CS in your own time, to keep that part of you with you.

>spend years pursuing a degree to end on a cubicle filling excel sheets I know this

>>12565 isnt the problem you are presenting an intellectual challenge? are you looking for intellectual challenges or to solve this problem?

Recently finished a Bsc microbiology. Haven't found a career yet that seems interesting that isn't taken or requires more experience/education than what I currently have. Though I recently got an offer for a position this summer so that might change. All my roommates picked up jobs at a lab nearby but they hate it since its essentially factory work with simple data entry. While all our majors are different they do similar tasks (preparing samples, entering data and repeating). I've been holding off for the past few months living off savings since that sounds soul crushing. I got an offer for a masters but it was in a different province and didn't want to move because I wasn't interested in project enough to warrant that. I did get a job offer for the summer doing field work testing for particular microbes at oil spill sites which would pay well. Hopefully the lab work isn't momentous. Until then I'll be working some minimum wage soykaf job since I can't keep up the NEET life

Get a PhD OP. It seems like that would be the obvious way to get to the point where your day job would become intellectually fulfilling.

>>12577 It's kind of amazing how many people echo this sentiment these days.

>>12577 This is where you automate it. Just make sure to hide it well because they can absolutely take your code and fire you thanks to the script replacing yourself and all the other similar workers. Legally anything you develop work related ain't yours. Even if you legit create it in your free time they can steal it while arguing the job helped creating it and there is a clause for this also most likely in your contract.

Pick up Marxism. Loads of reading material, very interesting, and can potentially cover any topic- economics, philosophy, computer science, history, culture, etc.

>>12597 i don't have anything substantive to offer op but i just hope lain stops making posts like this reply, which is full of very specific assumptions and reads like a paternalistic middle-ager using lainon as a proxy to give advice to his formal self

>>12671 You are reading too far into it. I scripted excel work in a previous job and it caused many people getting fired once they found out the script could do the work (was just a lot of manual monthly report archiving). Got zero for it. I'm just still salty about the whole ordeal and thus feel compelled to warn others before they make the same mistake as nobody tells you this kind of soykaf beforehand.

>>12597 >Legally anything you develop work related ain't yours. only when specified in your contract, but good luck proving it's really yours. for any seemingly boring necessity, there are ways to make them more interesting. you could think about how to automate them, when that gets boring: how to automate automating them,, think deeply about each action you plan on taking before doing anything then figure out the best way to carry out those actions,, the solution to any problem of boredom always is to think. think of different ways of thinking. be creative with it. the only problem i see you describing, OP, is that you are not thinking well, and are not trying to think well.

at least think of how to do your job so that it's interesting

>>12673 what a horrible place to work, i'm sorry you suffered through that. rest assured most places where you have the freedom to automate your job's tasks are not like that place, and few people with the wits to automate things end up in those places. lain probably had that reaction to your post because "you'll get fired if you automate your job" became a recurring apocryphal trope in boomer posts on old places like slashdot, which was pretty much 100% fud. why was it fud? because if your management is stupid enough to fire the only people who know how to maintain their new automated tooling, they're stupid enough to make working there not worth it in many other ways. also, since they fired you they probably needed to hire an expensive technical person to figure out your tooling and maintain it later on when it eventually broke and ground their reporting to a halt.

>>12673 I very much don't like to link to Hacker News, but there has been some decent discussion about this topic: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17265458 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14656945 https://qz.com/1019161 For my own software, I've taken the advice here: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-howto.html >Get a copyright disclaimer from your employer or school. This is a good idea and what I did even though my previous employer had no claim over my work. It's like insurance and it's a good idea, unfortunately. You should always read an employment contract and ensure that your employer doesn't get ownership over your work. Phrases to look out for include "work for hire". It's awful that we live in a society where even a minimum wage job can lay claim to copyright or patents made on one's own time, but we can't do anything to change it as of right now. I can't help but think that when you remove a person's ability to improve themselves on their own time and also don't pay them enough to, that's not a job, but slavery.

>>12566 Seconded. All of the frustration that you feel because your time is being wasted at your job is a direct and inevitable consequence of the capitalist economy. Hell, on paper I have a great job, about as great as a liberal arts grad can ask for: working a well-paced desk job at a comfortable environmental nonprofit that encourages social interaction, has a great culture, and pretty good benefits. It's *still* soul-crushing. Alienation won't end until wage slavery does.