Software engineers should be a little bit cynical

Balance of Cynicism, Optimism, and “Realism”

• Many agree with the article’s call for “clear‑eyed” cynicism but argue the right target is ultra‑cynicism and toxic optimism alike.
• Repeated theme: cynics are often right about the past, but optimists (or “strategic optimists”) create the future and get the big wins. Survivorship bias is raised as a critique.
• Several suggest the author is really advocating stoicism or realism, not cynicism; others argue calibrated suspicion about motives is part of being realistic.
• Distinction drawn between internal attitude and external display: being cynical yet tactful and pleasant is seen as more effective than “sneering negativity.”

Engineers, Politics, and Organizational Power

• Broad agreement that line engineers don’t set company direction but still have meaningful influence through implementation choices.
• Debate over what counts as “politics”: some say coordination, consensus‑building, and relationship‑building are politics; others reserve the word for credit‑stealing, backstabbing, and promotion games.
• Several note that avoiding all politics greatly limits one’s impact; learning to play “just enough” politics is framed as necessary in large orgs.

C‑suite Motives, Corporations, and Capitalism

• Strong disagreement with the claim that leaders primarily want to ship good software; many argue their true priority is shareholder value, power, and status, with quality only a weak secondary concern.
• Some describe executives as overgrown children requiring flattery and theatrics; others push back that reducing them to pure villains is the very cynicism the article warns about.
• The “late‑stage‑capitalist hellscape” framing is contested: some embrace it as accurate; others note we live in one of the most prosperous, peaceful eras.

Ethics of Working in Big Tech

• Several criticize the piece as self‑justification from a highly paid big‑tech insider, especially given antitrust wage‑fixing, surveillance, and military or geopolitical entanglements.
• Others defend staying inside large firms to do locally good work or “fight from the inside,” though some veterans say their internal influence changed very little.
• Multiple commenters describe consciously taking much lower pay to work for organizations they see as morally better (or at least less bad) and report social pushback from peers.

Late‑Stage Tech and Structural Limits

• Some frame all this as a normal pattern of technological maturation: once tech becomes routine, management, bureaucracy, and politics dominate.
• Calls appear to break up oversized firms when simple product improvements require navigating heavy politics and “ass‑kissing” rather than straightforward engineering.