[nostrademons]

It comes from insecurity. A lot (not all, this is a gross generalization) of tech people are really insecure, because a profession where you don't have to deal with people tends to attract a lot of people who don't like to deal with people, and one of the most common reasons for not liking people is being insecure about our own worth.

The best way to avoid this is to not tie your self-worth to your technological prowess. Discover what you like to do (beyond programming), and go do it, and be willing to put yourself out there and enjoy things even if you don't get any outside approval for it. Oftentimes this makes people really anxious; therapists or talking things over with a solid circle of friends can be helpful for discharging the anxiety, but really you pretty much have to lean into it and accept that being good with computers is not going to make you better than anyone else or solve any other problems you might have.

[AznHisoka]

Do you feel that people in Google are more or less egotistical than other engineers you've encountered? Or is it a culture where people are willing to teach others without making them feel stupid that they don't know X?

[nostrademons]

There's really no way to answer that question without making a gross generalization. There are some programmers at Google with outsize egos (although to be fair, they often have outsize accomplishments as well). For the most part, though, the culture rejects the chest-thumping brogrammer type. Your performance reviews are done by your peers, and so if you continually make your peers feel stupid, it will be hard to get promoted. Also, virtually everything is done in teams, and you're judged by what your team accomplishes, and so it's to your advantage to raise the level of the people around you.