The great thing about having an old-fashioned blog is that I can write anything I want, trusting that very few are going to read it in 2026; mostly bots, about which I don’t care, and some old-fashioned human beings, who will understand and perhaps read this all the way to its end. So, I should/could write about AI, and instead I will write about motives.
There was a funny adage circling around my university, back when I was there; it went like this: a first-year mechanical engineer will try to build a car’s engine, and a first-year software engineer will try to build a social network. We also said that management engineers would make an Excel file instead, but that’s beside the point. Those were the years of Facebook & co., and yet I couldn’t fit in the picture. As usual, I should add, in my case. I was more interested in designing finite automata, and in trying to come up with novel graph algorithms (yes, I know now how foolish that was), and in chasing down the “Numbers Theory” book at the local library, and in wrapping my head around numerical optimization, for my attention to be diverted to social network. For an engineer, what’s interesting about a social network?
Fast forward twenty years and, needless to say, I know the reason now, and the motives. I know them so well that I can write a five-word bleak summary: engineering is corrupted by business. The vicious cycle is actually rather short, and it goes like this: get your attention on something that looks cool; decide that you can do it better; realize that it’s a trivial and boring thing to build for any engineer worth of this name; believe you can make money with it; do it even though it makes your brain numb; fail at selling it; repeat. If I can still count, I’ve gone through this loop five times, each time more aware of what was coming and yet wanting to believe in it. As I am writing this I cannot help but think “Oh, but now I’ve learned my lessons!”. Time will tell.
It’s just work, somebody will say. And she may be right: it is just work, after all. Most of the employed population on earth has given up on finding enjoyment in work. And again, they may just be right: why would anyone expect work to be enjoyable, after all?
I don’t know about other practices, but I can say this about engineering: it is supposed to be a creative effort. That is, in fact, precisely the reason why most engineers were drawn to engineering in the first place: for the creation act. Call it designing, building, or something else, the name doesn’t matter much — just don’t call it development please, because developers are not engineers — as long as we agree on what it is: the creative effort that tickles your brain and wakes it up and keeps it awake.
Sadly though, business is mostly made of mindless actions. This is not a new thing born in the AI-age; it’s always been like that and, although I’d agree that the current state of AI has made it worse, people at work have always tried to stay afloat of their mediocrity in an attempt to meet deadlines and spend the least effort while still making their boss happy. That is, in essence, the problem: businesses are happy with mediocrity because doing something, anything, matters more than doing it outstandingly. Then again, it’s just work, and so who cares if enterprises are satisfied with mediocrity. I am positive that I am not the only engineer who cares about excellence and optimization, and I suppose workers in similarly creative fields share the same feelings. It’s mostly the intermediate layer of project/product people who stay afloat of mediocrity, because, anyway, things just have to keep moving, and because they don’t actually do stuff, they just talk about stuff.
It may look, now, as if I am about to come up with some savvy advice on how to manage this situation, how to get rid of those issues, etc. But I am not. It really is just work.
What I don’t want to do is to let the same motives corrupt my hobbies too. That’s where the depth of the “corruption” comes into play. As engineers, we may be corrupted so deeply that even for our own hobbies we cannot but think how to make “something” out of it. I am certainly guilty of it. But why must there always be something to be produced? Why must there always be ulterior motives behind intellectual pleasure? Why can’t it just be a hobby?
I am building a software system, and in the back of my mind I think: how to make people use and like it? I am reading a book, and I think: how to write an article, a review, something, anything that will resonate with people? I am outside running and I think about how to make something useful out of it. And I am not even that good at it!
The mind of the corrupted engineer is a dangerous place, where everything can be an industry, everything can become a business, and money is always somewhere in sight. The problem, of course, is that this is partially true; you could keep money always in sight, if you are willing to give up the fun parts and instead spend time making it fun (or interesting) for others. And then, magically, it’s not a hobby anymore; it’s just more work.
Purely intellectual activities, for those who enjoy it, should be free from the constraints and restrictions that belong more properly to the industry. I don’t mean, by saying “industry”, that academia jobs don’t exhibit these very same shortcomings; they do. In my not-so-long career I have worked in academia too, and it’s the same yada yada, the difference being what the specific goals are (e.g., publishing one more paper that doesn’t really say much). I also don’t mean to say that all job positions come with these shortcomings, but simply that most do. In the ancient times, wealthy people would “sponsor” artists and philosophers by sustaining them financially and thus making them free of earthly constraints. Unlocking, in effect, their thinking powers. Even then, I am not entirely sure how free they were, really, but in any case, gone are those days, and I am not aware of anything similar today, on this planet. Don’t tell me Patreon or similar stuff is the modern equivalent, because it’s not.
The modern way is to endure work, as in a resistance trial, keeping in mind that it’s just work, and keeping an eye on the “other things of life”. But what are those things? A taxi driver who has picked me up a couple of times keeps next to his seat, in the middle of the car and right above the clutch, a picture of his family. Wife and two children. I thought that, perhaps, looking at them helps him endure work, and especially keeps him away from yelling at other cars (a sad and common custom, where I live).
The point I am trying to make is to be wary of motives. Just as intellectual activities are corrupted by business, motives can ruin hobbies. Some folks, or, these days, bots on the Internet will say “do not mix work and hobby”; some other folks and bots will say “make your hobby your work”. I haven’t reached a firm conclusion yet on the actual question, though I know for a fact those are just clickbait posts. The way forward might be, as always, to try and see for yourself.