ButterBiscuits

> should I guess you're not and that your sole reason for responding is defensiveness in wanting to believe you're smarter than software developers?

You can guess that, and honestly it's not even a terrible guess. But it makes you a hypocrite. If you're offended by someone making this kind of assumption about you, reciprocating it isn't going to bring down barriers to communication.

> Or maybe we can try again?

You deflected entirely from the comment, which is fine. But then why reply at all? It sounds like you just want to be defensive.

> The "we don't understand" is not true anymore. The reality is that there are so many factors affecting a certain visible outcome that it's hard to specify a root cause.

That sounds like "we don't understand" except now we slightly better understand how little we understand. We still don't know how Tylenol works.

You're making a similar argument rich people make to defend their wealth: they earned it, they're comfortable, and they don't care what other people think. Not caring about anyone besides your immediate circle is the problem, so you bragging about it just means we'll never agree.

> There's nothing wrong in working at a FAANG for the money

Sure, if you believe that making more money is the only thing that matters in this world. If you take this logic to its extreme you can justify anything if it makes you rich. You're simultaneously criticizing a system while defending your participation in it.

There are lots of things wrong with working at a FAANG for the money. If you don't like how Amazon treats their warehouse workers, don't work at Amazon. If you don't like how Facebook perpetuates fake news, don't work at Facebook. If you don't like Google's search monopoly, don't work at Google. Just because the world is a shitty place doesn't mean you can excuse yourself for being a shitty person.