Talent is everywhere, opportunity is not. We are all losing out because of this

I'd really like to see where these jobs are at the moment because I'd like one so I can stop busting my ass in embedded for 1.5x median income.

Every time I search it looks to me like all the jobs that take people that just barely know React have a big long list of other requirements that are unstated and/or nutjob hiring practices and other hoops to jump through. Maybe all you need on the job is React but it looks like passing the interview is a nightmare even compared to the interviews we give for people writing embedded and systems software. The prevalence of LeetCode is surprisingly massively more common for React developer interviews it seems than it is for people like me that actually need and use that kind of knowledge regularly.

So something doesn't add up for me here. My anecdotal impression was that the frontend has a much larger amount of people that are fighting over very limited spots and is thus hyper competitive (and maybe even downright corrupt in terms of hiring practices), even if the job itself is probably the easiest if we are judging based on "CS cred" or background knowledge requirements about computers or whatever. And that makes me think once your in it that I'm going to feel compelled to work 60+ hour weeks because the danger of losing the job and needing to win the hiring lottery again is so great.

React is the programmer equivalent of the phenomenon of the starving artist with a liberal arts degree. Maybe you have a chance to strike it rich, but most just wind up unemployed or in a chop shop on some horrible contract.

You are down pretty hard on it, when the reality is more conplicated. I personally don’t know many developers who actually work 60 hour weeks, though a lot work intense 45 hour ones thay feel like 60. 60 hours a week is a lot man, if you are working that much you should take a breather.

1. "The Martians" - a group of Jewish Hungarian scientists from the early 20th century, who were about the most prominent in their fields and significantly advanced global scientific knowledge, even though Hungary wasn't a particularly rich or big nation at that time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Martians_(scientists)

2. The painters of Renaissance Florence - within approximately 200 years, one (albeit rich) city in Italy produced an enormous volume of high-quality art.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florentine_painting

3. The Bell Labs around 1950-1960 - an enormous concentration of tech talent that produced much of the foundations of current IT

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Labs

Notably, none of those groups/centers are productive today. The mojo can be lost again.