This is generally pretty true in my experience. Strong engineers really are capable of projects that regular engineers would not complete successfully no matter

This is generally pretty true in my experience. Strong engineers really are capable of projects that regular engineers would not complete successfully no matter how much time you give them, and there are also parasitic weak engineers who can't really do much at all, but siphon off their coworkers by convincing them to do their work for them. I generally agree that weak juniors are not a particular menace, and sometimes just need mentorship and can grow into regular engineers (and perhaps even grow into strong engineers, although personally I have to admit I've never seen that happen). But even growing into a regular engineer is great! It's honest work, and helpful. A regular engineer might not be a superstar but they're the backbone of many large tech teams. But after over a decade in the industry, I actually disagree about the parasitic weak senior engineers. While I think you can sympathize with them in a non-work context — you can generously assume that they may be going through a hard personal time, etc. — you actually shouldn't tolerate parasitic seniors at work. They're toxic to everyone around them: they leech off their peers, and especially leech off of the enthusiastic junior engineers while providing little or zero mentorship value (and by wasting their time and presenting as if they're useful, they effectively prevent the juniors from establishing useful relationships with helpful mentors), while taking credit for themselves, and they often can successfully blend in as regular, or even strong engineers, at least to managers since as the author notes, they have copious free time to participate in politicking. If not called out (discreetly, to your manager!), some of them inevitably continue getting promoted or at the very least continue "leading" projects while taking credit from the people actually doing the leadership work, which hurts morale since the engineers they've been silently leeching off of know they aren't good — but never told anyone that. A lot of HN understands the message that "work isn't your family" in the sense that you shouldn't feel you owe your employers the loyalty you would give to family members. But it's important to take that lesson to heart about coworkers, too: if you're being taken advantage of, they aren't your family and they aren't your friend: they're just using you. No one will know that's happening if you don't tell anyone about it! Be discreet, be open-minded — sometimes you'll be wrong, sometimes it's a one-off, etc — but don't keep that kind of abuse to yourself out of misplaced loyalty. It hurts you, your peers, and your juniors.