> 90% of the time when I read descriptions it is excruciatingly obvious to me that whatever code the chosen candidates will end up writing at this job will be completely removed from any important problem not only humanity, but even any individual human has ever had. Startup culture is shamelessly at the forefront of this industry’s ‘produce more code and ask less questions’ policy.

I would suggest that part of the problem is that many developers wish they could work on meaningful projects with good people at the pay rate that they are currently getting at $FAANG or with the amount of equity they'd be getting at $STARTUP.

In practice, employees treat meaning, independence, agency, and work-life balance as currency and are willing to take a pay cut in order to secure a meaningful job. Better jobs are out there (I found one), but if you're currently working for an adtech company or an AI startup you will almost certainly need to be willing to look at a much lower salary than you might be accustomed to.