As someone who has been doing "software" for about 30 years now, I completely agree with this. The only people I know who are good at what they do, do it because they use the hatred and disgust of the state of things as fuel for the fire. Optimism and anything similarly airy-fairy doesn't burn as well.
To be fair, I have been in offensive security and security engineering for like 18 years now. I genuinely have an optimistic outlook. But some days the rage wins and I hack/build in anger lol. I tame it. It is fleeting. The mission matters more to me in the long run. And security engineering as practiced in many big tech style firms genuinely matters and makes a holistic difference for users and everyone. It isn’t perfect, but it is way better than 18 years ago.
