I’m never really surprised that there are so many security vulnerabilities out there. Tons of software is completely half-assed: slow, error-prone and inefficient. The market supports it because VCs keep pumping out companies that throw spaghetti at the wall until something sticks. And it has had an influence on the kinds of skills we optimize for at the hiring level.

The problem I see isn’t that we’re trying to hire better developers. It’s that the tests we use are misaligned. Getting into a MAANG with all these hazing rituals and then you get stuck resizing the corners on buttons or editing XML configuration for some ancient system is a waste of time.

But so is hiring programmers that only understand frameworks.

Nobody hires anybody other than artists based on whether they can "create an artful and _____ ____". People are hired based on either what the have done, can claim to be able to do, or whom they know.

But yeah in general I agree with you – I just don't think it's necessarily always so clearly a waste of time.