We still see this attitude in HN comments sometimes. People thinking their piddly $500K in RSUs that vests over the next decade somehow qualifies them entry into the Global Elite class. And then they’ll argue against unions and other things that help workers because they see themselves as rubbing elbows with Jeff Bezos. Yea, yea, your handful of stock options make you just like him…

It's literally true, even without dreams or stock option bets, that many tech workers are temporarily embarrassed millionaires. The source tweets are by an Amazon VP; an Amazon SWE salary with even moderately responsible spending is enough to retire as a multimillionaire.

The phrase originally means that the subject is not a millionaire and likely will never be one, whereas many of us in tech are already millionaires or very likely to become one if we work in industry for any amount of time.

It took me about seven years in industry, starting from my first internship, to hit my first million. Non-FAANG and nothing magical happening with appreciating options or stock, just ordinary W-2 work.