[joshl32532]

> When you go to work, do you go maximize shareholder value?

Yes. The further up the ladder you go, the more this is pounded into your head. I was in a few Big Tech and this is how you write your self-assessment. "Increased $$$ revenue due to higher user engagement, shipped xxx product that generated xxx sales etc".

If you're level 1/2 engineer, sure. You get sold on the company mission. But once you're in senior level, you are exposed to how the product/features will maximize the company's financial and market position. How each engineer's hours are directly benefiting the company.

> Were you ever part of a team and felt good about the work you were doing together? Maybe some startups or non-profits can have this (like Wikipedia or Craigslist), but definitely not OpenAI, Google and Meta.

[svara]

Of course the business needs to work as a business too. I'm not saying that's not real, I'm saying it's reductionist to say it's only that.

Put another way, you need to have an answer to the question: Why should I work towards optimizing the success of this business rather than another one's.

If there isn't a great answer to this, you'll have employees with no shared sense of direction and no motivation.

[wkat4242]

Most of the work I as an engineer do is jumping through hoops that engineers from other departments have drawn up. If someone up high really cared, wouldn't they have us work on something that matters?