I honestly have mixed feelings about what you said. I can see how that’s happening, but at the same time, I feel like it’s been going on for the last 5-10 years, especially during the dev boom on 2020 when anyone with a bootcamp could land a job. But market conditions aside, being non-terrible is, in my opinion, a personal decision based on what makes you happy, fulfills you, and meets the needs of your job. I’ve had periods and jobs where being non-terrible, but totally average was enough, and as you said, I wasn’t going to do more for free. In others, I wanted to go above and beyond because I was motivated or properly compensated. I guess it depends on the situation.
My main goal with the post, though, is that even if it covers some generic points, it can still help people who are trying to improve but failing. In most cases because they’re investing their effort in the wrong things. Lately, I’ve seen many newcomers and juniors trying to respond to the current job market by becoming “better” developers, but they’re just chasing the latest AI buzz word and stacks, not being great at any and also failing at the basics. I think that’s the key takeaway I wanted to share: if you take care of the basics and avoid overcomplicating your work or your team’s life you’re already above average and a non-terrible engineer.