I've made great friends in tech (By "tech," I mean the San Francisco-based turn my life has taken). It's been full of challenges and surprises and moments that I am forever grateful for. But when it gets under my skin, I long for the simple transactions and camaraderie of the service industry, the informality and unassuming conversations at the music stores I worked at, or the quiet expertise of the apparel industry.
Tech is full of smart people. It's also full of people trying to mimic their vision of businessperson or a leader.
It's surprisingly uncreative and uncurious at times, full of hot air and platitudes. It's full of thoughts created in a bubble, but said over and over with no pushback or criticism. Criticism is frowned upon or seen as not worth the risk of being seen as a troublemaker. Thought Leaders are merely just the loudest and have been given the space to keep talking.
Thoughtful conversations are surprisingly rare, in my experience. Oddly, thoughtful conversations are what attracted me to tech, and I rarely have them anymore, unless I initiate them. I don't say that to make myself look good; I only tend to ask for help when I have exhausted any other means. But I've missed conversations where the result is greater than the sum of its parts.
Managers are the cause: They don't want to be seen as not having all the answers. They don't know how to run a creative session, that may result in telling someone, "That idea isn't ready for prime time." They don't know how to teach people to stop talking so much, to spend more time listening.