This is the most entitled thing I have seen all day. Holy shit!
Also, to get just a little more serious at the moment.
Has anyone else noticed that wagecuck culture is so ingrained that when you actually finally decide to leave wage slavery - either by becoming self-employed, or starting a company, or cutting down your hours and living more frugally - always, the response from everyone, including your friends, parents etc is always "this is a bad idea. What about your future???!!! You know that's risky, right!!??"
This makes me think that as a species we are too far gone. People aren't going to suddenly fix everything by "destroying capitalism", and government regulations aren't going to magically fix the problem either. Increasing the minimum wage isn't going to magically make people more able to enjoy their lives. We need major, societal attitude change. I don't even know if this is possible.
This is so depressing, I think working for a big company or someone else is very draining and not self-fulfilling, as outlined by everyone here. Is there a way around this? As a programmer, how easy is it to become independent? Make your own apps and post them? Make games and post them? I heard it's very hard but can someone give me a little hope?
If you want an honest answer, I also work as a programmer. I have worked on both Business software and Games. I found that working for large companies maintaining really shitty, barely functional codebases written by the cheapest pajeets they could find, is extremely draining. Especially when your job is supposed to be about solving problems as a programmer, and instead you're stuck digging through logs looking for why some number isn't being updated in a database because of some obscure bug in a system you have to interact with that barely works.
It absolutely sucks.
After working in that part of the industry for a few years, I left and decided to become a contractor. I was able to find work, however I had to take a Junior position or two, which I was probably overqualified for (it still paid almost the same as my previous job, though) working as part of a team of developers on a 6 months project. So far I have thoroughly enjoyed the contractor way of doing things. I can choose my own clients, so I don't have to work on ultra-shitty projects, and big businesses generally aren't interested in well-paid contractors (they either want full-time employees, or bottom of the barrel cheap contractors from India). I consider this an advantage, but the reality is it will be harder to find work. You will also be paid more and have more freedom. I was able to save a lot of money by living well under my means - my phone is cheap, I don't have any Netflix or other subscriptions, I generally live a pretty modest life - and this has allowed me to live quite comfortably between jobs. As I get more well-known around the industry, I should be able to charge more, and should be able to take more time off by choice rather than having long-stretches of 3-6 months between jobs. Overall though, I am quite happy with it. It's not for everyone - if you're the sort of person that likes a sort of lifestyle and couldn't go a week without getting paid, then contracting would just induce panic and would not be very beneficial for you. On the other hand, if you find money piling up in the bank but you're very time-poor considering all the things you want to actually do with your life, then this sort of arrangement is absolutely perfect. Why work to please a boss so you can ask for 3 weeks of vacation off a year when you can just take 6 months off in one go? Of course, you don't get paid time off, or anything like that, but overall I find it a much more empowering system.
DO NOT try to get ahead by making your own app, or a startup, or whatever. They are extremely unreliable. If you do want to create something cool, see it as a side project, do it when you can afford to do it, and treat it as a learning experience, not as a cash cow. If it goes well, you can replace your primary job with it. If not, you have at least worked on a fun project. The number of people I know who have "quit their job to make an awesome app idea" and ended up penniless is staggering. Especially when most "awesome software ideas" aren't really that awesome in the first place.