Comment by hansvm

The other side of this isn't sunshine and roses either.

Imagine you're a reasonably talented developer and just can't seem to break into a good job. You've been working delivery or something to make ends meet, and somebody finally offers a tech job. It isn't much, but your kids are hungry. You'll take it.

You show up, and it's everything the cynics here could have told you. Spamming people for money is the least of your worries. Whatever, at least you're actually programming, and maybe this is your chance to break into one of those mythical "good" jobs people keep talking about -- a stepping stone.

In an effort to impress, you figure out how to leveraging the HN who's hiring thread. It takes a bit of convincing for management to give you the time, but you're eager to prove yourself, and that enthusiasm is a bit infectious. Somebody signs off on the project.

It's a total flop though. You get zero conversions, nothing, nada. You've been spending the last week frantically debugging, getting more and more desperate as you realize what this means for your career prospects in a cutthroat environment like the one you're trying to appease.

As luck would have it, you stumble across this post today. Then the weight of your fuckup dawns on you. You spammed the "who wants to be hired" thread instead. Not fully yet recovered from the shock, you hear your boss call you over. "Do you have a minute to talk about something important?" There's a glint of orange on their desktop, and a pit sinks through the bottom of your stomach.