Inversely correlative, the idea that the NSA/CIA/FBI are staffed by incompetent technologists (hackers, devs, etc) is a Hacker News fantasy.

That’s really all you need dude. And yet both private and public sector intelligence jobs are selective. Supply and demand might help you reconcile your other points.

You slightly underestimate the pool of extremely patriotic or nationalistic smart engineers and scientists around.

If your basic thesis was correct no video games would get made either. Most of them could go get that FAANG money for arguably better work life balance. People have more motivations than you realize. And the idea that all the smartest engineers and scientists exclusively work for FAANG is a contrivance only believed on this dumb site. (The equally idiotic corollary is that all the smartest people work in software).

I also think you are underestimating the lifetime earning potential of top intelligence workers. 9 to 5 government jobs don’t have to be forever.

Finally, the sophistication of state level attacks such as in Iran is clear. The evidence exists, and you are wrong.

And you’re missing the point, it isn’t even that this attack wasn’t sophisticated it was that clearly no one sat down for even a few minutes to discuss how it would be detected. An organization, even a private hacking group, would have discussed this.

I understand that it pays very well and there's decent work/life balance in terms of hours. But you have to essentially work in a windowless cell with no internet. And for lots of people with the curious hacker mentality, it would be a chore to "keep your nose clean" as they say.

I live in the DC area and the stereotype of the bland, khaki, polo, and white sneakers wearing boring person is true.