In VC-backed startups, "growth" does not refer to user growth or profits. Most of the "daily active user" metrics are bullshit. I've worked for a company once t

In VC-backed startups, "growth" does not refer to user growth or profits. Most of the "daily active user" metrics are bullshit. I've worked for a company once that gave away employees free funding money to make purchases. Yes, to get the number of orders up before a board meeting. It was blatant, unethical, but not really illegal. So what is growth? The number of developers you have doing stuff. You hire more and more, and every few months you parade some Patagonia vests through your offices to show them. "Observe, more devs! Growth!" The problems is, the devs all have to do something. I stopped feeling productive years ago. It's all just never-ending grind, dealing with complexity that has no f--ing business being there. And the younger engineers have no idea. They think this is normal.