Neither of these points argue that tech debt isn't a thing, just that it's impact is poorly understood.

Companies have plenty of real debt, but still grow. Accumulation of tech debt might be a necessary cost much like servicing financial debt.

Now the question really is - what is the interest rate of your tech debt? And that's harder to know.

Genuinely curious, are you or were you lower class in America?

Sure, some people can benefit from remote work. But remote work is also not typically minimum wage. And to access those higher wage jobs, you’ll certainly need access to capital to invest in education.

Have you considered using an e-bike in the US? This could only be feasible in a minority of situations…

It sounds like a techie meme of what life could be, but is certainly not.

I am not American. I come from zero money but lucked out with a stable family that highly valued education. They sacrificed a lot for it but they strongly believed that you can improve your lot in life through hard work and perseverance.

I share those believes and am living proof they work.

Seriously, if you're that brilliant you can develop some basic social skills. And from what I'm getting from this thread, we are talking fundamental thinking before you engage in a social interaction skills.

It's ok not to be great at everything, but it's not acceptable to be toxic on the basis of your other skills. At the very least, sometimes that means the genius team member needs to just shut up and choose their battles.

And the first step for many of these type of asshole genius types can be to talk less. Once they master choosing their battles, they can work on how they approach the battles they choose to take.

> Seriously, if you're that brilliant you can develop some basic social skills.

I'm not entirely sure that this is always possible, since some of those people could possibly be on the autism spectrum, have Asperger's or perhaps other pathologies, that would impede their emotional intelligence. Obviously that's not always the case, but the assumption that it's always possible doesn't seem to be true.

> It's ok not to be great at everything, but it's not acceptable to be toxic on the basis of your other skills.

With this, however, i fully agree. I do find myself wishing that there was some socially acceptable way to call people out when their behaviour is not appropriate, without antagonizing them. For example, it would have probably been better to inform RMS in that way, rather than resorting to mob justice and "cancelling" him.

Autistic people are capable of following basic social protocol by not insulting or yelling at others. Anyone who says otherwise is just using their autism as an excuse for their toxic behaviour.

Intelligence isn't unidimensional.

Neither is culture, for that matter, and social skills, what's toxic, and when to shut up is culturally-situated.

It’s generational as well. Particularly the “strong man” style of leadership. You could see it in the Biden / Putin summit.

There's a part of me that hopes one side gets somewhat of a sustained power over time, just so we can see how it really plays out. You know, for science.

Have you checked out the Godot engine?

I don't think it's at the polish of Unreal or Unity, but it's probably the closest attempt for open source.