If you build what other developers eat, doesn't that mean working _lower_ in the food chain?

The plankton shall inherit the ocean.

Real food chains are cyclic, a bit like in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Ilkla_Moor_Baht_%27at

Bad metaphorical usage of the term "food chain" is an example of "office speak". Personally, I don't much like it.

I think both are correct.

Great, another fad library to use. That's definitely what we need.

Build what other developers eat.

I am interested in this topic, can you elaborate? Or any thoughts from anyone?

I think OP is referring to things like working on cloud infrastructure, systems software like web servers and reverse proxies, programming languages, or foundational libraries and frameworks libraries—all of which are consumed by application developers

Or have my job, switching periodically between on all that stuff and the end application. Make sure the tools you make are actually useful for the problem they purport to solve!

We just refuse to use vendor-lock-in cloud crap as a matter of principle. Regular server processes (though Haskell), regular machines (the NixOS), PostgreSQL, no problem.

Must be nice, I'm surrounded by zombies that are either RDD or truly naive. Most of the ecosystem this org works with really doesn't make sense for "cloud." Most of it should be internal infrastructure for an entire host of reasons aside from occasionally using EC2 instances for special case bursts of computing demands. Instead theres an obsession with AWS with no solid rationale.

Sorry to hear that! It's a real shame when people contort themselves to give Bezos more money.

How about AWS Lightsail instead of EC2?