Software developers are not okay

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Software developers are not okay 6 October 2026 – Baldur Bjarnason podcast The full essay version is below the overview and embeds. You can subscribe to the audio-only podcast feed over on Apple’s Podcast app and other apps if audio is more your speed. It’s also available as a raw podcast feed if you want to subscribe to it directly in the podcast app of your choice.

软件开发者们状况不佳，2026年10月6日——Baldur Bjarnason 播客。完整文章版本位于概述和嵌入内容下方。如果音频更适合您，您可以在 Apple Podcast 应用及其他应用中订阅纯音频播客源。如果您想直接在您选择的播客应用中订阅，它也提供原始播客源。

Overview and references # People in the software industry don’t seem to be doing too well at the moment. There has been a spate of “I’m leaving my tech job” videos – some because they’ve been laid off, some leaving preemptively – but the interesting action has been taking place in the comment sections, replies, and discussion forums. The replies are where it’s at.

概述与参考资料：软件行业的人们目前似乎过得不太好。近期涌现出一大批“我将离开科技工作”的视频——有些人是因为被裁员，有些人则是主动选择离开——但真正有趣的部分发生在评论区、回复和讨论论坛中。回复才是重点所在。

Software developers are not doing well # We’re not doing well in the software industry. We’ve all sensed it. Things are a bit off. It’s not just the “AI” financial bubble, or the debates that have been taking place – arguments, more properly – or the ongoing shift in public sentiment regarding the software industry. I’m talking the fact that people who work in software – specifically developers and user experience designers – are not doing great.

软件开发者们状况不佳：我们在软件行业过得并不好。我们都感觉到了。事情有些不对劲。这不仅仅是“人工智能”金融泡沫，也不是正在发生的辩论——或者更准确地说是争论——亦或是公众对软件行业情绪的持续转变。我说的是这样一个事实：从事软件工作的人——特别是开发者和用户体验设计师——目前状态不佳。

I keep coming across videos of people talking about burning out, being unable to work, and in some cases fairly serious mental health issues. And, obviously, people are getting fired. But often in these videos, those who are doing videos and announcing they’ve been laid off mention that they were thinking about quitting anyway and are now planning on leaving tech entirely.

我不断看到人们谈论职业倦怠、无法工作，在某些情况下甚至涉及相当严重的心理健康问题。显然，人们正在被解雇。但在这些视频中，那些宣布自己被裁员的人往往提到，他们本来就打算辞职，现在正计划彻底离开科技行业。

It’s not just senior people who might have memories and a fondness for how things used to be – stress mixed with nostalgia. It’s also students. I’ve found several videos of students who announced that they had switched majors, had been studying user experience design, but now decided to switch to something else.

这不仅仅是那些可能对过去怀有记忆和眷恋的资深人士——压力与怀旧交织在一起。学生们也是如此。我发现了几段学生发布的视频，他们宣布自己已经转专业，原本学习用户体验设计，但现在决定转向其他领域。

With a few notable exceptions, these generally aren’t people who are against “AI” – or, at least, they weren’t against “AI” until very recently. These aren’t people who disliked the technology from the start, who have had very severe criticisms about the way it’s made, the way it’s forced on people, or have severe doubts about the long-term benefits of applying this technology to our industry.

除了少数例外，这些人通常并不是反对“人工智能”的人——或者至少在最近之前他们并不反对。他们并非从一开始就讨厌这项技术，也不是对它的制造方式、强加于人的方式持有严厉批评，或者对将这项技术应用于我们行业后的长期利益抱有严重怀疑的人。

They seem to have all embraced “AI” at some point and assumed that what they were told was true, that this was the future. “This is where things are going.” This is what software development will be like, now and forever. After all that, one of the reasons why quite a few of them are leaving, is that they believe this promise.

他们似乎都在某个阶段拥抱了“人工智能”，并认为他们被告知的是事实，即这就是未来。“这就是大势所趋。”这就是软件开发现在以及未来的样子。在经历了这一切之后，他们中相当多人离开的原因之一，正是因为他们相信了这个承诺。

When they’re told that this is the future of the industry, they accept that statement as true. They’ve tried it; understand it and think to themselves: “I see your point, but this isn’t fun any more. This isn’t enjoyable. This is bad for me.” And decide to leave.

当他们被告知这就是行业未来时，他们接受了这一说法。他们尝试过、理解过，然后心想：“我明白你的意思，但这不再有趣了。这不再令人愉快。这对我很糟糕。”于是决定离开。

There are a number of systemic factors for why this is happening to them, for why the software industry is an increasingly inhospitable work environment. What software developers are facing is a case of “incentives”. Namely, managerial and executive incentives, specifically. The industry’s incentives for those who run the industry give them a strong motivation to try to undercut labour and their workforce at every turn.

导致这种情况发生、导致软件行业工作环境日益恶劣的因素有很多。软件开发者所面临的是“激励”问题。具体来说，是管理层和高管的激励机制。行业对那些经营者提供的激励，使他们有强烈的动机在每一个环节试图削减劳动力和员工队伍。

And they have been giving it their honest best. Facebook attempted, for example, to replace a number of their software developers directly with AI tools. They had to dial that down because the technology simply isn’t capable of what they believed it could do. But the intent has always been there to reduce the headcount of the industry.

他们确实为此竭尽全力。例如，Facebook 曾试图直接用人工智能工具取代其部分软件开发者。他们不得不缩减这一计划，因为该技术根本无法实现他们所预期的功能。但减少行业人员编制的意图始终存在。

A number of incentives for managers and executives that are lined up to push them in that direction. The fewer people you have working for you, the fewer stock options you have to pay out, the less resistance there will be to watering down the product, collaborating with the military-industrial complex, or helping authoritarian governments control and murder their citizens.

一系列针对经理和高管的激励措施正推动他们朝这个方向发展。为你工作的人越少，你需要支付的股票期权就越少，在稀释产品质量、与军工复合体合作，或帮助威权政府控制并杀害其公民时，遇到的阻力也会越小。

Over the past two decades, one of the more effective forces for keeping tech companies in line have been the tech workers themselves who have tried resist corrupt and unethical behaviour. It hasn’t always worked. There wasn’t enough of it. But what little there was it added meaningful friction at several important moments in tech history.

在过去的二十年里，制约科技公司行为的有效力量之一，正是那些试图抵制腐败和不道德行为的科技工作者。虽然并不总是奏效，且力量不足，但这些微小的努力在科技史的几个重要时刻增加了有意义的阻力。

The less influence and power the labour force has, the more power goes to the executive class and the bigger their share of the pie. If they lay people off that means there are few people working in any given organization doing the same amount of work. That means more stress and more pressure. As bad as the added workload and burnout is, that isn’t the only change to the job. There’s also less novelty. I’ve noticed that even though there’s an increasing number of apps or software being deployed, they’re all ei

劳动力拥有的影响力和权力越小，高管阶层获得的权力就越大，他们分得的蛋糕份额也就越多。如果他们裁员，意味着在任何给定的组织中，更少的人在做同样多的工作。这意味着更大的压力和负担。尽管额外的工作量和职业倦怠很糟糕，但这并不是工作的唯一变化。新鲜感也减少了。我注意到，尽管部署的应用程序或软件数量在增加，但它们都……