And on the contrary, if you have to write a rotten project, with a stupid team, while working for a mercantile scumbag, no matter what you do, you will be sick of work. What is the conclusion here?

Thankfully us veterans have the option to tell the mercantile scumbags to go fuck themselves. I can’t speak for everyone, but ludicrously nice pay is only the opening salvo in my contract negotiations.

I see it as part of the circle of life. Scumbags are going to find money, but I usually see them having to spend that money largely on rookies who don’t recognize them as scumbags.

The natural outcome (both of the shit management scumbags attract and of blindly recruiting rookies) is shit software that breaks down under it’s own weight.

Then the scumbags move on to another field they’re not yet recognized in, to try to get different money.

In contrast, the rookie developers have matured into real developers anyway, and often go use their accumulated experience to go build great things for more worthwhile employers.

It’s never quite this black and white, most teams have a mix. But it can help to recognize the pattern where it’s forming.