We have also not seen a recession in 15 years. In a world of abundance it is easy to debate remote vs in person, optimal working hours, and the defining the PM role. In a world of excess, it is easy to focus on these things.

Far harder when there is a bear market and you need to survive and pay your bills.

When I was a kid my father wanted me to become a doctor because there were no engineering jobs, except TCS, Infosys, and other services companies. And yes, government engineering jobs.

People took years to become “a senior”. Salaries grew single digit. When I entered college (BITS Goa in 2009), we were just recovering from the 2008 recession.

Now compare that to a world where people are quitting because they don’t like the vibe at their current company. They are not worried. They know that they can double their salary anywhere.

In this world companies are going out of the way to pamper you. Every company is shouting on Twitter about how amazing they are. Employee branding is a thing. They care about the “current things”.

Suddenly hustle is bad. And mindfulness is in.

But if the venture capital dollars go away in an upcoming downturn and 80% of the startups shut down, we will see a whole new world. Actually, not new. What we will see is the world before cheap abundant capital. I have seen this movie once and it was not pretty.