First, i dont think the low interest rates did that much for “tech companies” who were already cash cows which is usually the bench most people speak about. Small companies already operated in a no free money era as they never had the capital access to begin with.

Covid had a big hiring spike in tech and then it sloft off once rates went up. More of an excuse than real market conditions although startup, for sure impacted. Lets not even start with the political “org building” that still drives the “no” mindset today.

Second, ai has now been in the mix for at least a year now where it is objectively useful. I have not seen a single project complete faster than it would have pre ai. Stability is a wash trending to worse than pre AI.

The rigor is what is see draining slowly. You can be fast, say yes, and use ai all while maintaining some kind of quality bar.

For sure though, there are real risks esp if you shop at the edge of your affordability

The current place has this stupid thing where the dishwasher is attached to a circuit that has ac on it so if you run both it flips. I have to flip the breaker everytime i use the dishwasher.

The trend I DO see at least based on JDs is a whole lots of “agents” which are glorified claude code but in the cloud with tools focus on a given industry or domain. If this is what you mean, then you are correct.

I wasnt before but I am 100% confident that AI has done nothing to speed the delivery. It hasnt slowed it down either. It is a wash. The job is more miserable though.

I dont think much has changed. It has always been who you know. I was fortunate enough to have an uncle.

Every single new hire i see is either the child of two fango mango parents or a visa. I rarely ever talk to someone with a different background.

In startup world, everyone had theater degrees or dropped out. It was amazing. I miss it.

The boost is for what are glorified crud apps which it 1000x the tedious work. However, the choices it makes along the way quickly blows up without cleaning. Seniors know how to keep their workstation clean or they should.

People seem to think what ai is today is theft. If enough people agree, it will be theft. Big companies dont like this and push the other way. An objectiveness doesnt exist here. It is too wiggly

How strong the family and well situated the family is also likely plays a factor.

I know it may be hard for me to understand the need for writing in english what is obvious (to me) in code. I also know i have read a stupid amount of code.

My rule is simple, if the comment repeats verbatim the name of a variable declaration or function name, it has to go. Anything else we can talk about.

This is too true. However, often you dont fully know the shape of the domain until you swing at it and fail.