I'm a very mission-oriented person, so I understand where you're coming from. But there are a lot of places where people don't care very much, and people who wo

I'm a very mission-oriented person, so I understand where you're coming from. But there are a lot of places where people don't care very much, and people who work in those circumstances long enough tend to pick up those values. The most obviously mercenary industry is finance. I did that for a few years and then got the fuck out. But I've met plenty of mercenary people in tech, especially in startups and BigCos. For plenty of people programming is a job like any other; they're going to come in, do whatever the boss wants (however little sense it makes), and go home. I would die from that, but a lot of people either find their meaning elsewhere or just don't care much about meaning.