On trying to impress the restlessly ambitious

Hey you,

I know it’s been rough lately. Every day it feels like the world is going to shit faster and faster, and it’s hard to find hope on a dying planet, when the people in power are getting ready to dance at its funeral.

Money talks and doesn’t listen to the poor, while the rich explain how to live in poverty. Everything communal is privatized, NGOs fight for profit to stay afloat. Instead of giving water to the crops or those dying of thirst, they cool server racks in data centers nobody wants around.

You wouldn’t steal a graphics card, but if anything of note was ever released by burned out artists and developers, it’d be so full of micro transactions, you wouldn’t let your kids play it. Hell, you’re at an age you have to childproof every piece of electronics in your home, or Meta comes after your aging parents’ common sense.

If another homeowner unaffected by skyrocketing rents tells me I’ve got it easy and never knew a hard life, I’ll drop to the floor and cause a 8.8 magnitude seizure, leveling their cul-de-sac with the ground.

You can despair, but do so quietly, because corporations have inalienable rights surpassing your own, but they post on social media about issues that you care about, so really, don’t you see how much you have in common?

Can’t we compromise here to achieve harmony where you perform for amusement and gratification, and surrender all tips to secure your own survival? Remember how to calculate compound interest, because only your time is taxed by legislation.

I see you.

I am you.

I had believed the only way to win the game, is to play it by the rules I’m told. If they ask, deliver timely. If they demand, you didn’t deliver timely. If they threaten consequences, it has to be your fault.

But we’ve been lied to.

It’s not enough to do the job you were hired for, they will ask for more, and if you’re found capable of more, you were capable of more from the start: why reward someone who under-performed to begin with? You’ve embezzled your effort from the company. That’s a compliance violation. It comes with a fine.

They see what they want to see, they take what you’re willing to give, and if you’re not rich yet, kid, that’s show business, better luck in the next life.

Who builds this world?

Money can only be exchanged for concrete, and no matter how much tech bros with distinguished and expensive taste want you to believe it, AI can’t create construction-ready plans. Only the caring engineers build things that last; this empire too shall topple. If you don’t treat intelligence with respect, it doesn’t care about your problems.

What is a visionary? A loud guy with an opinion he can’t defend by himself?

Don’t think for a moment that reason has no place in this world, my sweet and gentle friend.

They know who you are, they know what you can do, they want you to build a system that locks you and yours out of life, so that you have no choice but to pay to play. And I’m beside you in time. We’re rats made of stainless steel. A pest to the wealthy.

You and I can bite through anything.

And if they don’t want us to eat their homes, there better be enough food for every single one of us.