Since you know the ads surveillance Borg so well you are uniquely positioned to understand how to solve the problems it has created for everyone. Spend a lot of time thinking about why your past work doesn't sit right with you and the conditions that caused you to be paid to do it. Then consider what could be changed that would make these conditions slightly better. That will help you find other groups whose work you value or come up with your own ideas to pursue.
There are extremely obvious problems in energy and biotech that everyone wants solved but they are harder to break into with your background. However it's probably not truly that hard to contribute in a software capacity if your horizon is a few years.
I've bounced in and out of advertising tech, and I can tell you that this isn't unique to that business space. No matter what space you land in, try to establish yourself as someone who is self-driven and can define and tackle your own problems. And then find problems that you want to fix.
I'm back in the ad space at the moment (any port in a storm), and the project I'm working on addresses one of our viewers' and customers' biggest pain points. When it's ready for launch I'll p-hack the numbers to show that it's a win for the company too. And then I can sit back and know that I've actually made things better for people.
Advertizing is pretty much evil. Selling things to maximise profits only is a net loss for humanity. I feel differently about technology though. Technology can feed us, keep us warm and let us share information and culture. Maybe just get out of advertizing and do anything where you make valuable and useful things? So many options really. It doesn't matter if the bosses make more than you as long as the things the company does are decent.
Oh I love technology, don't get me wrong here. As I wrote: I still want to work with computers, software development, the web etc. The thing is, I don't want to feed (surveillance) capitalism anymore. But finding companies with decent leaders and half way decent pay, preferably those which aren't listed at stock markets and don't exist to simply increase shareholder value at any cost, has become increasingly difficult.
I worked a lot on advertising/marketing related software. And had very similar feelings.
Only until I've resolved my main personal psy issues.
Since then I don't care. Job is just a mean to an end. As long as I don't do anything illegal - i'm fine. If I don't like it - I change it to something I like more.
I don't give a single duck how others make money or how much they make. Also I know that there are as many assholes hiding behind noble "missiona" as there are among entrepreneurs just trying to make good money.
I work as long as it is valuable for me and my goals.
Of course people are motivated by money but there is are difference on how you can achieve that goal. And in advertising it is mostly on the backs of the most naïve users.
In contrast there are people that really improve software and products for everyone and there are countless examples of that.
Sounds like you've been unfortunate and have spent all your time with financially driven people. A bunch of that might from from working in advertising. I can assure you that there are founders and companies that are ethical and moral, though they may be rare. My point being that you might want to focus on changing the type of people you work with as much as the topic and market segment. Certainly you will find a higher percentage of people motivated to do good for the world in the nonprofit sector, for example.
Maybe, do something like https://www.village.one/ does?
I recently took a very hard turn from coding to building things: PCBs, MCUs, CAD, CNC, PnP. All of the acronyms.
Lower case engineering means that we can shift from building SaaS apps that won't exist in three years to prototyping solutions to real problems. To me, this is the place to start.
That indeed sounds like a hard turn, and an interesting one. Did you have any prior experience in creating hardware? Because otherwise I could not possibly imagine that this was possbile without a major (costly and/or time consuming) educational update.
Short answer is that I'm a competent autodidact living in a time where it's easy to research anything with YouTube, ChatGPT and paid mentorship in a remarkably compressed amount of time.
In fairness, my father was an engineer and my grandfather was an inventor; 35+ years developing software and being in proximity to electronics and people building stuff is certainly part of my story. However, aside from the whole mental health / needing to chart a new path thing, the main thing that motivated me was watching inspiring creators on YouTube (Wintergatan, Stuff Made Here, Hacksmith etc) and realizing that a lot of the gap between me being the audience vs being a maker myself was fear of starting. I kind of had to give myself permission to change how I saw myself.
I am reasonably smart and I have a pretty decent work ethic, but the main thing I have going for me is stubborn determination and patience.
If you remember one thing from this, it's that learning without a specific end goal is pointless or even harmful. It's like going to a hardware store and buying every tool just in case. Instead, you need to identify a project that you feel passionate enough to finish. Then you do what engineers do: recursively break down big tasks into smaller tasks, and then go down whatever rabbit holes are required until you are finished. I recommend not setting (or telling anyone about) delivery dates.
Two resources that I highly recommend:
1. I had no idea that CAD - I highly recommend you skip right to Fusion, which is free for casual use - would be such a huge part of my life a year ago... but now I think that it's hilarious that this wasn't obvious from the start. I learned by following along with this video, step by step. It's 90 minutes long and it will take you about a week to complete. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mK60ROb2RKI
2. Too few people talk about how incredible ChatGPT is for circuit design and engineering. It is just as impactful as its ability to write code. However, when you hit a wall on what you can Google or watch, I highly recommend John Teel's Hardware Academy. It's an engineering mentorship platform, and the people there are excellent. You can get feedback on PCB design, manufacturing questions, suppliers. There's video courses, too. https://thehardwareacademy.com/
Thank you for this resourceful answer. Hardware might not be my ultimate goal, but some of your thoughts and conclusions are quite universal. I agree that ChatGPT is a valuable tool in certain areas. Education is one of them, as long as people don't solely rely on this platform and keep on questioning and verifying information via primary sources. It certainly has accelerated software development in my company as well, to a degree.
take a deep breath. go for a walk. exercise. look at the clouds and wonder why they make the shapes they do. start conversations with people you don't know. clean up trash from the street. send a letter to a friend. record the sounds of birds. draw a picture or make a comic book about how you feel and mail it to yourself. dig a hole and then look at the dirt with a macro lens. try to get really good at making noodles. volunteer at a school, teach programming to kids. make a robot that draws a picture and mail it to your mom. get a job at the library. make friends with a crow. set a long term, 1000 year vision for your life. smile at your heart and be kind to yourself. pour yourself a cup of tea, smoke some hash. get good at making pickles. champion biodiversity. fill in the cracks with gold. wave to strangers in a heartfelt way. forgive yourself because you are good enough.
realize you're still caught in the hamster wheel of capitalism and all you did is moot
Feelings are a strong motivator for actions, and learning/experiencing which of those activities lead to a more positive emotional/mental state is the first step to enable healthier decision making, even to escape the wheel if still necessary. It's hard to realize their value while only mentally executing them in a state where the wheel is the dominant outlook.
I would also like to continue working with computers and the internet
That ain't changing anything. Good luck.
Bible. Open random page, the verse that you spot first is your answer.
Try this once a week.
> 20 There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses.
This didn't help.
"how bout going from one scam to this scam?"