While I broadly agree with you, and am a self-taught (and occasionally mentored) software engineer, I have often thought that to “care about retaining employmen

While I broadly agree with you, and am a self-taught (and occasionally mentored) software engineer, I have often thought that to “care about retaining employment and lowering anxiety” is by far the more rational approach in the corporate-dominated software world of today. Over a long enough career I think we all see that a high percentage of interchangeable cogs at the BigCos end up with a lot of wealth and very little job-induced stress. Whereas among those who chafe at cogdom and “care about the code,” a tiny fraction make it big while most carry more stress than they should, shoulder more day-to-day responsibility for making things work, and do it for less reward. I don’t regret being wired for creativity, but the boring people are doing great in this business. Maybe AI changes all that soon, but I wouldn’t dare to bet on which direction it splits.