/**
 * file: karbytes_27_august_2024.txt
 * type: plain-text
 * date: 27_AUGUST_2024
 * author: karbytes
 * license: PUBLIC_DOMAIN
 */

To Whom It May Concern:

This is a follow-up to the previous journal entry which I wrote on 26_AUGUST_2024 (and that previous journal entry is what I consider to be “insufficiently professional” instead of “sufficiently professional” according to my personal standards in pertinence to karbytes content (and karbytes, in this context, refers to the body of (public domain) Internet-based intellectual property (in the form of digital files (which are each ultimately reducible to exactly one unique sequence of binary digits which is “machine readable” and used to verbatim reconstitute the “higher dimensional” data which that “one dimensional” sequence of binary digits encodes) described by the web page at the following Uniform Resource Locator: https://karbytesforlifeblog.wordpress.com/about_karbytes/)).

I acknowledge that I have had only a minimal amount of “industry experience” working as a (paid) employee whose primary job was to write, test, and document software (and that job took place at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory from 01_JUNE_2012 to 30_SEPTEMBER_2015 (and what that software was almost entirely written in Google Apps Script (which is a Google-proprietary form of JavaScript used to interface with various Google cloud-based applications such as Google Drive, Google Calendar, and Google Sheets))). I only made approximately $13.65 per hour at that part-time internship job and have not worked in any office job since then (but I have held various “blue collar” jobs such as working as an entry-level employee in restaurants, retail outlets, and warehouses). What I want to emphasize in this journal entry is that I would rather not require that I have a “white collar” job in order to call myself a software engineer or computer geek. Instead, I would rather devote myself to making software development, computer science, and STEM subjects in general a core part of my (lifelong) hobbies so that my involvement in such things is not contingent upon me being employed for pay in such domains.

I believe that thinking of myself as a hobbyist software developer is ultimately more rewarding than being employed full-time or even part-time as a software developer because, as a hobbyist only, I get to choose exactly which projects to work on and I get to set my own deadlines (instead of be told what to work on and when by someone other than myself). This is not to say that I am completely closed off to the prospect of someday becoming employed as a full-time or part-time software developer. What I am insinuating is that I think that I might be happiest treating my interest in computer science and other related domains as something which I would pay to do rather than only do if I am paid to do it.

This might not be what some people want to hear. I suspect that some people are hoping that I bust my ass trying to become (and then perhaps eventually become) a full-time software engineer who feels overworked, underpaid, and deprived of sufficient free time and creative freedom to live more closely to how I idealize living. I am afraid that pursuing and/or obtaining a job as a paid software engineer would ultimately be more of a cost to me than a benefit (but other people might be content to exploit me as their slave).

Ultimately, I don’t think I have much say over when I am employed, how long I am employed, who I work with, what happens while on the job, and where I work (though I do have some limited say over where I work and in what role because I at least get to choose where I send job applications and, so far, no one can legally force me to go to work). Because I have so little say over the conditions in which I work for pay, I decided to not let that part of my life define my sense of self. I would rather base my self concept on what I choose to do as hobbies beyond the scope of what society recognizes as being worthy of pay and accolades.

Sincerely,

karbytes