The weird thing is that it’s been this way for decades, but the enormous product-market fit of the FAANGs’ core products have masked this.

I read a new book about Android development, mostly built around interviews of the original team. Several times it was mentioned that after the Google acquisition, Android was unable to hire the people they needed — experienced Be/Palm/Danger devs from their network — because they were unable or unwilling to pass the Google interview bar. High-level exceptions had to be made to bring in these people Google absolutely needed to build the new OS.

That suggests that other teams inside Google (and other companies imitating their interview process) have been in a similar quandary, but without the C-level exception to hire the experienced people they wanted. And I think that explains some of the product struggles these companies have had. Android is clearly the exception as a long-term success.