I actually don't disagree with anything you're saying. I've gone through my own periods of frustration similar to what you describe. I was never a Java engineer

I actually don't disagree with anything you're saying. I've gone through my own periods of frustration similar to what you describe. I was never a Java engineer, but I followed the evolution of your field (going back to the advent of Java in the 90s) because some of my work was adjacent, so I am generally aware of what you're talking about. When I wrote the comment yesterday, I was thinking "this person is asking for feedback but I'm not sure if he's really hearing it." When I re-read my comment today, I wonder if it's sort of slyly hostile or argumentative, and think perhaps I should not have posted it. I'm sorry if I attacked you unwittingly due to my own insecurities or frustrations. As I said yesterday, you really don't sound like a bad or mean spirited person, but I do believe that the way you were writing your posts yesterday might cause some people to interpret you that way. I think that was what I was hoping to convey. Yes, the subject of declining quality of tech workers is an interesting one. I first noticed it around 2014, but I think the root of it may go back into the late 2000s. It seems like a lot of people in that era started hearing that they should major in CS because it's a high paying field, and they took that advice regardless of whether they really had any inherent interest in computing or the magic of computers. This resulted in more and more people coming into the industry who seemed like they didn't quite fit, although as a manager you want to welcome everyone on your team and get them to be their most productive, so obviously you don't want to discourage anyone. I think it may be related to what you're talking about. On the other hand, I would say that with each new generation that comes up, they are confronting a new world with increasingly high level tools, and I don't think we should disparage these folks. It isn't like I grew up on Charles Babbage's Difference Engine; I just took the field as it was at the time I happened to be a teenager. Like in your situation, you probably started with Java when frameworks like Spring did not exist yet or were not widely used. But as those things evolved and got better, it's what the newer people would have been taught or done in previous jobs, so I don't really buy that that in and of itself makes them lesser engineers. They may just be doing the most reasonable thing with the tools that were popular at the time that they learned. Is it possible you are conflating some specific not-so-great engineers with whom you worked, with the broader trend in that period (and today) toward increasingly high level constructs as the underlying silicon gets faster and more powerful? Not sure, just offering it to you as an idea. I'm really sorry that you wasted 15 years! I've wasted a lot of my time on the earth as well, and I think most people feel that way about some period in their life. But it sounds like you came into some ideas and insights that you wouldn't have otherwise had, even if the experience itself was frustrating. Maybe that's just the reality of life?