[jjani]

Casinos, scams (both of these Web3 as well as traditional), game hack developers, ransomware and database hackers. Adtech, which thousands of HNers work in (anyone at Google). Temu, Shein, gacha/lootbox games, dopamine drug dealers (Meta, Bytedance). NSO group, spyware. Policeware, Clearview, surveillance tech. You could name defense as well, but I find that more ambiguous.

I wouldn't be surprised if it at least 25% of HN has worked for such companies for at least 2 years of their career.

[asdff]

The reality is that its a dog eat dog world out there. I know people who worked in adtech. Yeah, they thought it sucked too and was boring stupid work compared to doing something cool. But it paid the bills, and interesting work is hard to land even without having to pivot into it mid career.