Author here!

For context, I recently wrote a tongue-in-cheek guide on how to coast in large companies.

[0] https://taylor.town/corporate-camouflage

That got me thinking about what happens when people, especially engineers, coast too much, or fail to plan out their careers.

I know plenty of smart people that are enchanted by comfort, then chain themselves to companies that take advantage of them.

If you've developed transferrable skills, this parable probably isn't for you :)

I personally think it's okay to be ambitious, and it's also okay to chill.

I will not call it snobbery but a difference in generational culture. I am assuming you are below the age of 45 and came into the industry where jobs were aplenty , super low interest rates and the industry was rapidly innovating and risk taking is encouraged . For a lot of folks from the Office Space days of 80s and 90s that wasn’t necessarily the case . Tech jobs were limited and you probably had to post or submit a paper version of your resume. I would encourage you to take a look at JavaScript code from 2003 or a Java codebase from then and see how dreary and different the tech industry was back then . As for transferable skills there is a reason IT workers were stereotyped as autistic nerds before the brash,well rounded, rock climbing risk takers came in. Culture, risk, opportunities and interest rates had to do a lot .

Edit- I was probably like Arthur Westbrook when I was working on a visa and had a family to support . As soon as I got my greencard my appetite for risk taking increased and showing my transferable skills increased . Situational context .

Honestly, I just thought it was hilarious -- a sort of parodic counterpoint to the Story of Mel.

I thought I was reading at The Onion!!

You say tongue-in-cheek while, almost verbatim, summarizing my day-to-day strategy at $megacorp! Seriously great stuff.

This level of reaction tells me more about you than the author. Referring to it as 'snobbery' shows that you interpret satire as a personal attack on someone, probably yourself. I clicked to their home page and immediately figured out that they dabble in tech and like to joke around.

This is as much a tip for myself as for you: take a deep breath before reacting.

I think it was just a joke :)