On: “Normal” engineers are the key to great teams

[grandempire]

It absolutely attracted different people. The inflows are much larger and not the same.

For example EE used to be prestige and CS was the backup. And that would never compare to finance or law.

[yubblegum → grandempire]

Yes but imo this change happened no later than late 90s. I distinctly remember how suddenly it became cool to be a programmer and the 'new type' was already making changes by early '00s. And yes, the $s attracted smart people who did not embody the old hacker ethos.

These are the new bloods that gifted us with surveillance tech, btw.

[blendo → yubblegum]

Back in the 90s, they were the “suits”.

Andreessen, Scott McNealy, & Ellison were, to me, the ones that left a particularly bad taste.

[chasd00 → yubblegum]

“Call 1-800 beageek”. Remember that commercial? That was around the time software dev went mainstream, late 90s iirc.

[grandempire → chasd00]

Mainstream is different than upper middle class and ambitious.