Are you US based? Beginning my career in the mid 00s I was exposed to "IC" pretty much day 1 starting at Microsoft.
Other people around me in adjacent sectors also use the phrase to refer to non-managers, it is pretty common daily parlance, I am 99% sure I can ask any of my knowledge worker friends and they'll know what I am talking about.
Google trends show "individual contributor" has been a pretty popular phrase since at least 2011.
is "knowledge workers" still a thing? it was meaningless when it was introduced in the 60s, even more so now.
another bubble creature, i guess.
Yes, everyone knows there are two tech giants based in Seattle. What this person was saying is that other large companies have also opened/grown Seattle offices in the past decade and vice versa, which has caused usage of corporate vocabulary to merge.
Maybe you should reflect on the fact that you don't seem to understand what people in this thread are talking about and stop acting like you do.
The labor group that requires significant creativity and autonomy to be effective. The artifacts they create are a minority of the value they create.
Mostly they became a real thing because traditional management techniques fail to work well with knowledge workers.
I've been in the industry since 1998. The first time I saw it was on HN a few years ago (maybe 3 or 4).
Hah!
I would just love to see that thread - may it is also filled with "What's an IC?" :-)
Very common phrase in the tech industry.