I think they still have a point. It was the heyday of computing precisely because they were awful; there was always something to work on or improve. Fixing bugs

I think they still have a point. It was the heyday of computing precisely because they were awful; there was always something to work on or improve. Fixing bugs in operating systems offered clear improvements to the livelihoods of thousands or millions. It's no longer that easy now. Most critical things don't suck that hard anymore, so it's hard to find a way to feel special, or feel like it's a special time to be a part of. Even in startup land most work done is "build this website" or "build this app" - what the software does could be cool and easy enough to get passionate about, but the hope that "we're going to use this code to revolutionize the entire world for the better" that was omnipresent in '90s hacker culture has pretty much been murdered by the sins of Facebook and others in Big Tech. Now it's "what can I do to make sure the stuff I work on hurts the least amount of people as possible?"