In a Web full of hype and meaningless positivity, there’s an infestation of demonic beings. Soulless creatures, joyless shadows of humanity lurking, ready to pounce on unsuspecting prey. These beings have many names: engineers, architects, scientists, doctors, etc.

They are never happy and often only a few taps away from telling you how wrong you are. The question is, why? Why are they doing this? Do they gain power from negativity?

I have been called “too negative” far too many times to even bother remembering. So have my friends. Sometimes I even give them nicknames like “Mr. Grumpy” (his actual title was Head of Engineering). That being said, I find it quite strange. I don’t feel particularly negative, at least no more than your average person complaining about the cold in Winter. In fact, I have even tested positive once or twice in my life.

So why the negativity, huh? Reaching into the depths of my most esoteric of thoughts during a journey of self-discovery (yes, this is a sentence), I came to recognize a few key traits that might have caused me and my peers to appear as massive tits, as the British say, to the rest of the world.

Some of the core passive skills found within people in STEM (and various political reactionaries) include critical thinking, finding ways to improve things, being unhappy with the status quo, and obsessing over details nobody else seems to care about. We are called to solve logical problems daily, even though our tools might differ. We feed on miser- cough

Where was I? Oh, right, as the kids would say, “Engineers gotta engineer yo.” Just like Walter White, we also have to cook.

Finding weaknesses, connecting the dots, and coming up with a satisfactory solution within the given constraints is a wonderful, albeit a bit taxing, ability. Only some are fortunate enough to be able to create and change their own destiny. “But what must we give in return?” I hear you ask. Well… everything!

While these traits can be extremely productive and beneficial, some people cannot shut them off outside of work. People often say you don’t hire a software engineer for only 8 hours per day, but for their mind to perpetually mull over their work. I believe this to be true. We would hit the pub with the dev lads only to discuss more code or things we could improve at work. I take a break from my work to go on X and read more about software. I am driving to the supermarket, and all I can think of is how much easier (and cool) it would be to diagnose and fix my car.

People live within their headspace so much that they forget that not everyone works at the same wavelength. Have you ever tried to optimize how you shop? Did you ever present a solution where compassion was needed? Have you ever criticized a solution without even giving it a second thought? It can be very unproductive and antisocial. I particularly hate it when people try to formulize normal human interactions, but that is a different rant.

Naturally, there’s a darker side to this as well. People are weaponizing this to instill fear and sadness and, at an increasingly alarming rate, to peddle their flavor of snake oil.

So maybe next time Mr. Grumpybeard is stressed and tells you how things can be better, please understand it comes from a place of care, and you’re lucky they’re not promoting another lifesaving ChatGPT wrapper.