I was amazed to see this comment, like a meteorite of sanity crashing into HN.

My sibling post is on the right lines - a lot of people in tech are chasing a delusional self-image - though I don't think that's true of everyone. People can make the effort to be self-aware and honest with themselves. I think the rapid expansion of tech in the last few years attracted many, many youngsters, hucksters, delusional types, and so on, and people with maturity and experience became a minority.