I think there's some substance. I've personally experienced examples where teams have looked at Google or other FAANGs, cargo-culted in practices - or at least their understanding of the practices - and then things have not gone well. With that being said, it's not to say that there's nothing to be learned from FAANGs: you can learn plenty but you need to be choosy in the application of that knowledge.
The wider point is that I've observed a trend in industry - stronger at some companies than others - of applying solutions, trendy or otherwise, without a clear understanding and articulation of the problem being solved and the value of solving that problem to the business.
That being said, I don't think it's fair to generalise that one has to be an asshole to survive at one of these companies - which is certainly implied by GP's choice of phrasing. I now know quite a few people who've worked at FAANGs for varying periods of time, and none of them are assholes. There are no doubt assholes at FAANG but I've seen no evidence that they're any more concentrated than in the general population.
I think there's some substance. I've personally experienced examples where teams have looked at Google or other FAANGs, cargo-culted in practices - or at least their understanding of the practices - and then things have not gone well. With that being said, it's not to say that there's nothing to be learned from FAANGs: you can learn plenty but you need to be choosy in the application of that knowledge.
The wider point is that I've observed a trend in industry - stronger at some companies than others - of applying solutions, trendy or otherwise, without a clear understanding and articulation of the problem being solved and the value of solving that problem to the business.
That being said, I don't think it's fair to generalise that one has to be an asshole to survive at one of these companies - which is certainly implied by GP's choice of phrasing. I now know quite a few people who've worked at FAANGs for varying periods of time, and none of them are assholes. There are no doubt assholes at FAANG but I've seen no evidence that they're any more concentrated than in the general population.