Recessions are built over a relatively long period of time (at least longer than your average engineer stays at one job). So by the time a recession hits, a good engineer at a large company should have accomplished something of significance.
The author's argument is not that chaos doesn't exist in large companies, just that it is far more frequent at a startup.
The author's argument is not that chaos doesn't exist in large companies, just that it is far more frequent at a startup.