I'm going to assume you were getting paid to build software that solved problems and created value for your customers and stakeholders. Writing code has always been just one activity that's part of the job, and developers forget that and make statements like this! That's the parent poster's point. I'm not saying it's not an extremely important part of the job, or that people don't often collaborate poorly in ways that take away from the sacred deep work time, but framing it as "I get paid to do X and not Y" is just a highly limiting way to look at or talk about the role.

I've worked with engineers all over the spectrum in terms of their styles, beliefs, and preferences... and some of them are frankly not very interested in getting out of their comfort zone (like heads down, writing code and being alone), and optimizing for the group rather than themselves.

So yes, they are in fact unhappy to communicate (in a general sense), because of how tedious and uncomfortable communication often is.

I'm not saying it's irrational or immoral, or not driven by the types of past poor experiences you mention, but in my experience it's often pretty obviously suboptimal and highly frustrating to work with.

But if you go back and read it, you might notice that a lot of the companies and software he discussed and predictions along with them failed to be true or lasting.

I think mostly it was a good catchphrase.

One underlying, perverse incentive behind many of the problems is that insurers are regulated based on percentages of spending rather than total costs.

The US passed laws meant to limit marketing and overhead that tied insurers economics to the size of the overall medical bill... which means as healthcare spending rises, the dollars they’re allowed to retain can rise too, which basically means they're incentivized to drive costs up rather than down.

Here's a link to the book: https://www.helmpublishing.com/products/an-american-sickness...

While I understand why it matters for folks affiliated with prominent AI companies in particular to sign this, the more the American people stand together, the more pressure I think that puts on our government to act responsibly.

Idealistic and naive? Probably. But sometimes grassroots efforts do spark change, and it's high time the people of the USA start living up to the first word in our country's name.

Anyways, to answer your question directly: I welcome all the fine people of the world everywhere to join in what this open letter stands for.

Unfortunately, it's abundantly clear to many of us Americans that the current administration doesn't care what we think, never mind what people outside our country do. So I'll just start with the group that this department (in theory) is supposed to represent.

I think you should look to have a portfolio online and an active Github account.

I have 3 things on my portfolio (www.bcooke.net):

1) Side projects I never finished or am still working on 2) Freelance sites I built alone (where my good relationship with the client meant I could openly share the work) 3) Brief blurbs about the salaried roles in my career, with a screenshot

I haven't updated it in a while but it's something.

Do you have a portfolio? Is your Github active? StackOverflow? You need things you can show!

It sucks because your best work - the stuff you spent the most time on - isn't always available to share. And even if you could, there'd be questions about which part you did.

Having a site you can point to and say, "I did that" is a good way to showcase your abilities, and if all your work is owned by your employer, you should probably start thinking about ways you can change that.