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This happens repeatedly and isn't anything new. This happens because there are a bunch of mentally ill people running tech companies that want jobs to be about

This happens repeatedly and isn't anything new. This happens because there are a bunch of mentally ill people running tech companies that want jobs to be about "belief". They don't want older people in tech because they want to empire build with the latest and greatest insecure technology. They want to create frustration engines with poor engineering practices they older tech workers won't put up with it. The goal is to make technology more difficult so they can slowly re-train you to go to other people and hate all technology. This is a real thing and has burned out so many software engineers you'd be shocked at how many of them don't know their manager was the person who purposely made their job difficult to burn out another software engineer. They want strange conspiracies about what the software actually does that older workers don't need to put up with (because some of it is illegal). If you're good at reading source code and figure out what they are actually doing in the source code, in some cases companies blatantly selling software that doesn't do anything they are selling their customers on. In some cases people inject code into a repository when no one is looking, so they can run side businesses using the company infrastructure. There are a ton of older tech workers who read every line of the source code and when they start asking too many questions people freak out and fire them to maintain a conspiracy. This happens for all sorts of reasons.

jnwatson 6y ago
Also, it is far easier to pay young folks in lottery tickets. Most of us older folks understand the actual value of stock options having been through the process a few times.
horns4lyfe 6y ago
This is fascinating, do you have any particular examples of the last paragraph especially? Not saying I don't believe you, but I'm very curious.
- holidayacct 6y ago
  I'd love to but I've signed NDAs for the companies I've worked for. If you like advertising that will put on the right path.
- AmericanChopper 6y ago
  I've worked at a couple of startups that have operated like this. They had vaporware products, and were focused more on getting money out of investors than they were brining a product to market. I arrive and realize that the code quality is absolutely terrible, and worse, the approach they've decided to take is simply never going to work. I report a list of problems to the CEO, tell them they won't be launching in six months, and that the fastest way for them to get a functional product would actually be to throw everything away and start again. This makes the CEO angry, because they don't care if they have a working product. They only care about having a good story to tell investors. This makes the existing technical leadership angry, because they don't know how to do things properly, so having somebody say they're doing it wrong is obviously a big issue for them. In fact, the only reason they're in technical leadership positions to begin with is because the startup decided to cheap out and hire people with 2 years experience working in body shops as "tech leads". I realize the company can't be fixed so I leave, and the company folds once it reaches the end of it's runway. Companies like this aren't terribly uncommon, and they exist primarily to defraud inexperienced investors. FWIW, I've seen this play out at every blockchain startup I've contracted at.

jnwatson 6y ago

Also, it is far easier to pay young folks in lottery tickets. Most of us older folks understand the actual value of stock options having been through the process a few times.

horns4lyfe 6y ago

This is fascinating, do you have any particular examples of the last paragraph especially? Not saying I don't believe you, but I'm very curious.

holidayacct 6y ago
I'd love to but I've signed NDAs for the companies I've worked for. If you like advertising that will put on the right path.
AmericanChopper 6y ago
I've worked at a couple of startups that have operated like this. They had vaporware products, and were focused more on getting money out of investors than they were brining a product to market. I arrive and realize that the code quality is absolutely terrible, and worse, the approach they've decided to take is simply never going to work. I report a list of problems to the CEO, tell them they won't be launching in six months, and that the fastest way for them to get a functional product would actually be to throw everything away and start again. This makes the CEO angry, because they don't care if they have a working product. They only care about having a good story to tell investors. This makes the existing technical leadership angry, because they don't know how to do things properly, so having somebody say they're doing it wrong is obviously a big issue for them. In fact, the only reason they're in technical leadership positions to begin with is because the startup decided to cheap out and hire people with 2 years experience working in body shops as "tech leads". I realize the company can't be fixed so I leave, and the company folds once it reaches the end of it's runway. Companies like this aren't terribly uncommon, and they exist primarily to defraud inexperienced investors. FWIW, I've seen this play out at every blockchain startup I've contracted at.