Please don't make a trollish username on HN. It's distracting, since the account basically trolls every thread it posts to.

We can rename the account for you if you email a better username to [email protected], but I've banned this account in the meantime.

Or ego in the form of bait and switch offers of getting to have leadership responsibility or opportunity to heavily influence decision making about technical choices.

Hype a position up like someone has creative autonomy to lead, because it strokes their ego, then later just shrug.

You could argue that the US military uses ego very successfully. The money isn't good all things considered but it is reliable/stable. So, I think it is a mix of M and E.

Now imagine if we make universal health care and universal college education free of cost and available everywhere to everyone regardless of income. I bet military recruiters' job will become a lot harder.

This makes me wonder: why can't we use ego in civil service? I'm thinking police, firefighters, and transit workers (from the bottom all the way to top management). Because after all, if we want to reduce cost (and I hope we all do) then what's better than to reduce pay?

Ego without additional money could be a valid argument. A lot of engineers would leave a job where nothing gets done for an equal-paying job with a lot of impact.