A few days ago, I had a gathering at a cafe with a senior industry mentor I hadn’t seen in a long time. During the meeting, the mentor mentioned he was preparing to leave his company and lamented that working in the tech industry today means not only do companies not treat engineers as human beings, but even people completely unrelated to the industry look down on them.
“I really don’t know why today’s Taiwanese society is so hostile towards engineers working in hardware factories?” the mentor said helplessly.
“Is it really that hard to come up with ‘small certain happiness’ creativity? But without people like us working day and night behind the scenes, those people’s ‘happy creativity’ would never become a reality; from beginning to end, it’s just daydreaming. And which part of our work doesn’t require what they call ‘creativity’? It’s not like every project just suddenly jumps out from Mount Huaguo.”
“Damn it, a bunch of people just talk about creativity, but what have they actually done? As soon as a ‘few’ people publish something, they immediately link keywords like ‘young people’ and ‘creativity’ together, treating it as if it were their own achievement. If you say this to them, they’ll just sneer at you for acting like an old-timer.”
“Yes, ‘sneer’ (suan/sour), that’s a very convenient word,” the mentor murmured to himself.
“The generation gap used to be the older generation not understanding the younger one; now it’s the younger generation not understanding the older one,” I told the mentor as if having an epiphany, then asked: “So what are you planning to do next?”
The mentor shrugged and smiled self-deprecatingly: “I’ll go to the US or Mainland China to see if there are any opportunities. My classmates in Beijing have been inviting me to help out at their companies. But there are also a few US companies I’ve worked with for a long time that interest me.”
“I can’t waste the knowledge and experience I’ve worked so hard for over the years just because I’m discouraged and go run some B&B or cafe in Hualien or Taitung, right? How long can you survive just earning money from your own people? A lot of people are still happily buying South Korean goods. Instead of letting South Korea earn foreign exchange, I’d rather let the US or Japan earn it. At least they see Taiwan as something useful, unlike South Korea, which sees Taiwan’s industries as something to be devoured.”
I sighed to the mentor: “Even a guy like you has to leave Taiwan. But opening a cafe is indeed a bit sickening; right now everyone is flocking to do these things that look trendy but only cause internal depletion.”
“Don’t forget,” the mentor added, “they are ‘all’ doing it to enjoy life.”