Vibes are sour.
Even in tech. That’s the verdict from Menlo Ventures’ Deedy Das, who dropped a lengthy, bleak take on X recently. San Francisco is frenetic. It is also deeply fractured.
Das called it the worst outcome divide he’s ever seen.
He ran a quick calculation. Roughly 10,00 people—think OpenAI founders, Anthropic engineers, Nvidia staff—have hit that elusive retirement wealth marker of over $20 million.
Everyone else?
They stare down the barrel of a life where a high-paying job maxes out under $500k and never gets them anywhere close.
Meanwhile layoffs are rampaging. Software engineers feel their entire skillset has evaporated. Path dependency? Gone. Replaced by a deep malaise about what work even means now.
It sparked the inevitable eye-rolls online.
Deva Hazarika pushed back. Said Das is missing the boat. Argued that the people Das is crying over are incredibly fortunate. That they have the luxury of choice. That happiness is just a switch away for the wealthy.
Is it?
“Most of the people in this post are incredibly fortunate and can simply make a choose to be happy.”
Maybe. Or maybe the anxiety comes from watching the ceiling lift off for everyone else but you. The game feels rigged, or at least radically unequal.
The gold rush is real.
So is the dirt left on everyone else’s clothes.
