Stop calling yourself an IC

The ugliest part about tech is the lingo, the language, the words that we use to describe our work and each other. It’s all super gross to me!

For example, the way we describe the different kinds of work. In this world there are managers and “ICs”—individual contributors. Those are the folks who, ya know, get stuff done. They build stuff. They draw the mocks, write the code. To me, calling these folks “ICs” has always been dehumanizing, lazy, and sloppy. It makes it sound like we’re all parts in a giant machine that can be easily replaced with the flick of a switch.

(And hey if you think that your employees can be easily replaced then you do not understand the value of their work! You are bad at your job managing them! You do not deserve to be a manager! Sorry!)

But besides the tone and feeling of this cruel abbreviation, there’s two reasons why I hate calling people who work this whole dumb “IC” thing.

First, it’s buck wild to me that managers don’t need an abbreviation or shorthand. This tells you something about how they think about the labor of employees, that they can be so easily abbreviated.

Second, there’s no such thing as “individual” contributions! All work, all labor—regardless of job or industry—is a collective. The problem here really starts at school, as they set you up in competition with your classmates and you have to see yourself as the hero that has to do everything for yourself. But actual, real work outside of school requires collective effort to get anything meaningful done.

(Companies are likewise incentivized to see your work in a silo, to better isolate you from your coworkers.)

Anyway, I was chatting with Mike about how much I hate this term and he said this:

What we call things is important. Orwell taught us that!

For example, the word stress is slowly disappearing from the worker’s lexicon, while words like anxiety are ramping up. Because it’s in capitalism’s best interest to convince you that what’s wrong is coming from inside you, rather than what the system is doing to you.

(!!!)

So: stop calling yourself and your coworkers “ICs”. You are a designer, an engineer, a producer. Your contribution deserves more than a moniker that is made to dehumanize you, purpose-built to make you replaceable. Do not help this dehumanizing system to dehumanize you by normalizing this kind of language!

And always pick your words kindly, carefully.