Sad to see that FAANG is so attractive - sure, pay is nice, technical problems are nice - but you are actively working on walled gardens. You become a walled gardener.
Now that I'm older, I'm understanding of people optimizing pay and intellectual challenges. At the end of the day, people have to optimize for their own interests because the world sure as hell doesn't care about your or my sacrifice. Even my best friend who took a job at a non-for-profit for many years helping those in need eventually joined BigCo to be able to afford things in life.
