--- title: Don't anthropomorphize big tech companies | daily.dev description: Tech companies should be treated as machines, not people, the author argues. Companies don't respect effort the way humans do, so a project you slaved over for... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/don-t-anthropomorphize-big-tech-companies-4ojtaepux twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Don't anthropomorphize big tech companies | daily.dev og:description: Tech companies should be treated as machines, not people, the author argues. Companies don't respect effort the way humans do, so a project you slaved over for... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/don-t-anthropomorphize-big-tech-companies-4ojtaepux og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/4OjTaePux.png og:image:alt: Don't anthropomorphize big tech companies og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Don't anthropomorphize big tech companies **[sean goedecke](https://daily.dev/sources/seangoedecke)** · 8 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Tech companies should be treated as machines, not people, the author argues. Companies don't respect effort the way humans do, so a project you slaved over for months can get a 'nice, now what's next' reaction while a 15-minute tool gets wild praise. The fix is to stop imagining the company as a person and instead spend time hunting for low-effort, high-reward work. The author also warns against the opposite mistake: treating a company as a literal rulebook, since handbooks and guidelines never capture the real, illegible criteria behind promotions or priorities. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### why did my months-long project get a lukewarm reaction while a quick fix got praised Because companies behave like machines, not people, and machines do not respect effort. A project that took months can get a 'nice, now what's next' response, while a tool built in fifteen minutes or a question answered in Slack can earn wild praise. Impact, not effort, is what gets rewarded, so it pays to look for low-effort, high-reward work. _daily.dev surfaces career takes like this for engineers figuring out what actually gets rewarded at work._ ### is it true that senior managers at tech companies hold grudges against engineers Not usually, especially the higher up they are. Managers in large tech companies do hold grudges but are described as 'tolerably cold-blooded' at senior levels, since you don't reach senior director or VP by throwing away useful tools. Engineers who believe they are hated are often instead being judged as unreliable or risky rather than personally disliked. _engineers navigating a rocky manager relationship can find more perspectives like this on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Large tech companies don't need heroes](https://daily.dev/posts/large-tech-companies-don-t-need-heroes-swhqcsgfj) · sean goedecke · 52 upvotes · 5 comments - [When Meta Became the Work](https://daily.dev/posts/when-meta-became-the-work-tedubcsox) · Hardik Pandya · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Tools, not friends: Why AI personas are a trap](https://daily.dev/posts/tools-not-friends-why-ai-personas-are-a-trap-ggqywvzt4) · Medium · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [The best engineers just get shit done, sometimes with AI](https://daily.dev/posts/the-best-engineers-just-get-shit-done-sometimes-with-ai-bdvo4sb3s) · swizec.com · 5 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#career](https://daily.dev/tags/career), [#company-culture](https://daily.dev/tags/company-culture), [#big-tech](https://daily.dev/tags/big-tech) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/don-t-anthropomorphize-big-tech-companies-4ojtaepux) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Don't anthropomorphize big tech companies","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/don-t-anthropomorphize-big-tech-companies-4ojtaepux","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/don-t-anthropomorphize-big-tech-companies-4ojtaepux"},"datePublished":"2026-10-25T01:08:39.704Z","dateModified":"2026-10-25T01:09:07.084Z","description":"Tech companies should be treated as machines, not people, the author argues. 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