I got the opportunity to get to know Kevin in the mid 1990's. He was visiting Vancouver and created a play for some local artists and writers to perform in, me being one of them. He was a generous, brilliant man and sorely missed. Thanks for posting this.
Agreed, basically all phones having exploits that NSO has discovered and have yet to be patched by the owner of the phone are vulnerable. I think Apple's lawsuit against NSO is still in the courts, they mention a specific exploit that has since been patched.
With Bitcoin surging again & NFTs in the news there have been more stories on the energy requirements needed to drive these blockchain based systems. This is a great paper that really puts it into perspective.
"energy consumed by Chinese Bitcoin blockchain in 2024 will exceed the energy consumption level of Italy and Saudi Arabia"
As a co-op student for IBM in the late 90's I had to sign something similar... Anything I worked on outside of work... And for x years after leaving the company belonged to them. Was an eye opener for sure.
It's the same thing, really. They pay you for eight hours but continue to own you for the next 16 hours. They pay you for two years but continue to own you for the next two years after they no longer pay you.
Yes. I had one company try to get me to sign a non-compete that would have ensured I couldn't get a job in my field for two years unless I moved across the country. I countered that I would sign that, if and only if (a) I was paid a two-year salary equivalent bonus on hiring, and (b) my offer was tripled since they expected to own everything I created 24/7. They backed down from requiring the noncompete.
True but it becomes more of an issue once it evolves to be an industry standard. You're not forced to work for IBM but you're pretty much forced to work somewhere.
1999/2000 Toronto, height of the dot com, new grad in a "senior dev" role with no real experience. Our CTO was a paranoid chronic pot smoker who lectured me regularly on knowing the difference between "sharks" vs. "dolphins", our manager, a sweet Hungarian man who excelled in his prior career managing major infrastructure projects, was pulled out of retirement to lead the team and the experience almost killed him... Our ORM mapping product had fatal flaws and only I and our CTO knew it... The CTO was pushed out, I was put in charge briefly... Sleeping at work 4 nights a week, 14 hour days, living off diet coke and veal sandwiches, gained 40 pounds... Experienced my first panic attack prior to a meeting with key investors... One of whom was wanted by the RCMP for fraud. Good times... The thought of experiencing 1/5 of that stress and chaos again still gives me anxiety... 20 years later. After that experience , my tolerance for continued stress is very low without encountering anxiety... I empathize with what you are experiencing.
I now live in a 150 sqft tiny house in the woods, shower under the stars, poop in a bucket, grow food, fall asleep to the sound of frogs and owls... And it's the happiest I've ever been.
Look, what I'm going to say here is not even close to the same, but it really needs be said.
I have that same kind of visceral reaction to any thoughts of certain employers that I've had "that" kind of relationship with. I don't think it's "startup PTSD" so much as "dysfunctional employment (or other relationship) PTSD"
I can easily mark the exact moment where my ability to deal with the situation I was in went so far gone that my brain's instinctive response was to just flee.
I've seen this with familial relations as well, which clearly pushes it well into "just normal PTSD" if you can accept that ANY form of PTSD is "normal" (which I refuse, for the record...)
I'm just glad you got out before you actually ended up with permanent psychological damage. This shit isn't a joke.
I made a similar choice, now at 45 years, have not been unhappy at all. My last few jobs i've actually removed experience from my resume, and applied for jobs that pay less than what my experience could demand (i don't NEED six figures) and it's worked out very well. I still enjoy programming and working with new technology, less responsibility, more time for the things i enjoy working on. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjvazX03EOU
