I have seen how groups of people with dubious ethical standards played whole companies, pushing each other forward at the expense of more capable people, later taking their cronies with them to whatever company they landed, applying the same strategy. One of them made it to a director position at Google, largely propelled by "great networking". I can't with clear conscience support cronyism that deprives others of their shot at greatness and don't do it myself (rejected a couple of CTO roles advised by a friend with contacts etc.). I decided that expert/meritocracy ideal is better than what I see throughout the industry and academia.
> pushing each other forward at the expense of more capable people, later taking their cronies with them to whatever company they landed, applying the same strategy.
So says you. This can also be thought of more charitably that someone hires people they know because there is much less risk. I've been working in software for ~20 years. I have a decent list of people who I would work with again, know what they bring to the table, and their strengths and weaknesses. If I had to build a new team tomorrow, you can bet I would be calling the people I know first.
When I was a dev lead, you better believe I pulled in my former coworkers as well paid contractors because I trusted them. There was nothing underhanded about this. I let my manager and his manager know that they were friends and I had them go through extra interviews with my manager even though I usually had the final say about the contractors we brought in. I needed someone I could trust.
I just think you're over fitting to that sample size of one. It's like saying you're never going to talk to another human because two people once plotted a crime by talking to each other. You're conflating the ends with the means.
