GoKawiilDefending my own brain against enshittification
10 Aug, 2026
If you haven't had Belvita breakfast cookies, you have probably had Biscoff cookies, which are similar. These are a classic airline snack. You've probably had one along with a Coke with ice in a plastic cup, and thought to yourself, 'these cookies suck.' That is a fair assessment.
I'm not talking about Biscoff, though. Those are Belvita breakfast cookie's sweeter counterpart. I'm talking about Belvita because they are more subtle in flavor, less texturally satisfying, and thinner/more brittle.
I mentioned in an earlier post that I was looking for a hybrid job due to overwhelming loneliness and a growing, antisocial alienation from the activities of daily living. I found one. It's good. So as to not dox myself, I won't reveal too much about my company (some people have emailed me with accurate guesses about where I live and what jobs I've applied to in the past, which was a good sign I've been a bit too loose with the specifics of my life lol).
The important thing, though, is that this company is public and therefore considerably more 'buttoned-up' than the high-risk, freewheeling, dopamine-laden startups I've worked at in the past. It's an immensely welcome change, even if there are times I miss obscenely extravagant offsites, staying at luxury hotels for run-of-the-mill tradeshows, and free ginger and turmeric immunity shots at the breakfast bar.
The floor plan of my office is basically glass doors along the perimeter with private offices for executives and cubicles throughout for the rest of us. Highly normcore. No bean bag chairs or wooden backlit risers.
It's also business casual. The last time I was in office I was 25 years old. I wore band t-shirts and dickies and vans to work. Everybody did. Later, with fully remote companies, everybody on the All Hands call wore hoodies. This is, of course, typical of tech.
Now, each morning that I go into work, I take a dress shirt down from above my closet, where I hung it the night before so I could steam it. I put on a leather belt that matches my dress shoes. I feel like Gus from Breaking Bad, meticulous and impeccable.
On days I go into the office, my morning routine goes like this:
... continue reading