Less idealistic maybe, but I do not feel that they are less innovative. It's harder to buy into hype and noise when you have seen decades of trends come and go.

Less idealistic maybe, but I do not feel that they are less innovative. It's harder to buy into hype and noise when you have seen decades of trends come and go. I personally tend towards more "boring" solutions to my problems, but the overall problems I solve continue to be dynamic and interesting. It is possible to use simple pieces to build something complex. And of course sometimes things like LLMs do come along and I incorporate the apparent capabilities into my toolbox as something with serious, non-hype, potential application. Though I am also jaded from watching far too much get hype like IoT and crypto. Watching companies waste billions on valueless innovation tends to do that.