None of this needs to be happening

These days, every day is a “bad news” day, but today has been an extra-special doozy.

I’ve been searching for game dev work since December. I have 20 years of experience. I’ve applied to 55 jobs. Today, I got rejected from one of the very last opportunities left in the mix, after a total of three recruiter calls and seven rounds of interviews.

Why are we doing this?!

And to be honest, that was the only one of those 55 jobs that I was actually kinda excited about.

We went for a drive. I picked up my phone. That was a mistake. The news assaulted me thus:

• The tariffs are going so great, so much winning, that we can expect empty shelves and higher prices by the middle of May.
• But it’s okay, because the idiot king who single-handedly caused this disaster has decided term limits don’t matter any more.
• To add insult to injury, the BBC is using AI to resurrect Agatha Christie to sell a fucking internet course.
• And then, just a few days after I became a WSFS member, Worldcon announced—to predictable uproar—that they used AI in their panelist vetting process.

None of this needs to be happening. All of this is caused by human stupidity, ego, and greed.

Most everyone I know is struggling to find stable work, as tech jobs relentlessly enshittify. Every other company is trying to get in on the AI grift, and none of them have a coherent business angle, just dollar signs in their eyes. Roles sit open for weeks or months, wasting candidates’ time on round after round of interviews and days or weeks of unpaid labor on tech tests, and then they close without ever hiring anyone at all. I still see news of layoffs every single day and at this point I’ve lost track of how long it’s been going on like that. The communities I’m part of have pretty much stopped reacting to this because we’re all too exhausted to process any more rage and grief.

At this point, Brianne and I have bailed on tech. I turned off my “open to work” status on LinkedIn this morning. For now, at least, I’m not looking for any more tech jobs.

We recently started Shiraki Press, and we’re just going all-in on that for a while, because at this point, what the hell else can we do? The market outlook for books may be challenging, but it’s something we own—no one can fire us from it—and we’ll be beholden only to our authors and readers, not to venture capital and its parasitic need for infinite economic growth.

Writing

My WIP hopepunk novella, Crossroads, continues apace. My most recent milestone was submission of the first ~15% of it to my workshop for critique; that’s been done, and the critique session itself is on May 7.

My Hugo House workshop is doing a series of readings in late June. I’ve written a new flash piece for that, which I’m excited to deliver. More on all that when we get closer to the date!

Also, Shiraki Press is now accepting submissions!

Reading

My April reading was significantly impacted by time spent on the tech job hunt, time spent critiquing workshop submissions, and time spent reviewing submissions to Shiraki Press. However, I did manage to finish Becky Chambers’ lovely A Psalm for the Wild-Built. The dedication is “for anybody who could use a break” and that concept is beautifully executed throughout. Sibling Dex’s turmoil over purpose resonates deep within my soul, and generates some magnificent paragraphs—especially late in the book—that had me hanging on every word.

Imagine one fine day

Today, I’d like to leave you with an exercise.

Imagine: an entire day without infuriating news of human stupidity and malfeasance. An entire day without the elevated blood pressure and cortisol, the confusion and betrayal and rage and despair. An entire day where everything was just fine.

What would you do with such a day?

Do any of us even remember what that sort of day feels like?

I’m genuinely asking. You can email me or reply to this Mastodon thread. I’d love to feature some replies (with permission!) in a future post.

Maybe if we share enough good dreams and memories, we can collectively recall what’s been stolen from us.

And if we can recall what’s been stolen from us, maybe we can start to take it back. —❤️