Would Nietzsche Have Hated Modern Software Engineering?
Have we become subjugated by both our tools and the seemingly endless layers of management?
If you haven’t come across the Transvaluation of Values then perhaps it’s time, as a progressive software engineer wishing to progress to the higher and more valuable ranks in the Grand Game, that you cast your eyes over it — probably more than once, to be fair, as Nietzsche tends to be a little curt with his wonderful pithy observations of life in general.
We all have our interests outside of software engineering you see, some people call them leisure pursuits but others identify them as almost shadow parts of our selves that come to light as one of the many results of our continued participation in the Grand Game.
Some of us are in the game for the money¹, the power², the status³, but most of us who make it to be true progressive are here because we love a challenge, we love to solve problems, and we know deep down that struggle, strife, and ultimately conflict⁴ is what makes life worth living.
With that in mind, when we understand that the transvaluation of values represents something of the elevation of the weak over the strong we start to get an inkling of what Nietzsche may have said himself about modern software engineering should he have been a participant.
