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Something occurred to me that has been interesting to come to terms with: even though I have a little over 20 years working in technology fields in some form or fashion, I am not a technology professional. And I never will be.

This is a good thing.

Despite the catchy title this isn't 'impostor syndrome' rearing its head nor me saying I am not qualified. I was good at my jobs, I performed well at the tasks I undertook, and I knew what I was working with. I started working in the industry during a time when there wasn't such a desire for hyper-specialists and the needs of an IT guy were nebulous at best, so being a jack of all trades was the norm. I'm a decent coder, competent with most areas of devops, an okay hand at higher-level networking, and I can even keep track of most architecture conversations to contribute minor amounts. I know I'm useful.

The first realization is that I was an imposter of a different sort. Even when I was in charge of coding new inventory systems or designing an enterprise level collaborative platform for technicians in the field, the tech never felt like it was the point. It never felt like the technology was actually what I was working with. Now, that's an odd thing to say about positions where dealing with technology was supposedly the primary function. At least on paper, that seems to say that the point of my job wasn't the point of my job.

It sounds weird, but that disconnect is the source of where I'm going. It's something that started gnawing at me more than a decade ago, and I wouldn't learn how to put it into words until much later. The idea that the technology I was working with was a means to an end and a way to reach the real part of my jobs that I was working on: the people. My happiest, proudest part of each and every project and position I held was the groups I was a part of and the teams I have led.

Not the thing I made, but how it worked with the people that used it. In turn making me not a technology professional. I'm a people professional. Yet it was the technology that got all the attention.

The people part stands out.

In this current form of the industry this seems to be given very little attention. Advocating for the better treatment of employees is regularly cast in the light of being detrimental to a company. To hear some company representatives tell it, treating employees like humans instead of numbers would be the death of innovation and industry. This naturally means that my people-first approach doesn't mesh well with crunch-time-oriented development or high turnover margins. But it also means I don't mesh well with the technology-for-the-fun-of-it crowd either. Tech for the sake of tech.

There's a bit of the origin story around my turning to storytelling and taking on the Mileposter moniker wrapped in there as well, but that's not the point of this particular ramble.

A recent Mastodon exchange made me a bit more aware of the effects of this schism than I had previously took note of. I was focused a lot on the internal side of humanizing technology and bringing more care to the workers I was involved with. I hadn't given much thought to the exact same philosophy turned to other way around: that the same issues had dehumanized the customers of those companies in much the same way.

The people who sit down and actually use the products of the companies I was helping make better are just as marginalized by becoming 'users'. They are reduced to numbers just as the employees are, with IDs enough to go around. Their value appropriated towards data rather than experience.

It's not that I wasn't aware that this is going on or that I didn't have an issue with the scenario... I just never thought of them as the SAME scenario. The same issue.

Storytelling tech and tech storytelling.

See, we use some technology to tell stories here. I largely focus on the telling stories part of that equation when it comes to rambling on about things, but technology is a part of the things. One of the tools of the trade. I feel like it's a responsibility of an artist to stand for the tools they use as much as they stand for their finished product.

Which puts me a bit on the spot because once it was pointed out it was not something I can ignore. It's something I feel the need to contribute to. Goes back to that whole people professional thing. And in my professional opinion - people desperately need to feel like people.

That's the point of my silly ramble: the technology industry as a whole, and all of us as consumers of it, really does need to rehumanize our exchange with technology. Privacy isn't an issue of data or commerce but of human communication. Monetization isn't an issue of legality and profit but of human interaction. Capitalism isn't an issue of definitions or processes but of human existence.

I'll likely go into more rambles on some details of that or the whys of it or who did what where and for how many jellybeans. I'll probably touch on data farming and on A.I. and other tech related to this whole jumble at some point, I'm sure. But for now this was the wander I wanted to have. I want to talk about these things and have discussion. For everyone, but also for the people in the middle and their stories.

Technology FOR people, not COSTING people.

Tech employees aren't cogs in a machine. Tech customers aren't just users of a system. And the idea that people should be treated like people should NOT be the radical notion it's made out to be. I hope you enjoy this idea as much as I do.

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