> A lot of techies, especially young guys, are hyper-competitive from very early on. I think it is only "a lot" when you only look at the relatively small samp

> A lot of techies, especially young guys, are hyper-competitive from very early on. I think it is only "a lot" when you only look at the relatively small sample who frequent sites like HN. I used to work for a large defense contractor, where out of hundreds of engineers of all disciplines I could count on one hand the number of HN readers, and only 20% or so of engineers fit the hyper-competitive mold. Obviously there was some level of self-selection (part of the reason I am not there anymore), but places like this represent the bulk of engineering jobs.