And by definition most developers don’t work at “elite” companies. I hope you don’t call your average FAANG and adjacent “elite”.

And if you think that is normal, it’s honestly kind of sad.

>before I went to elite companies, where it is quite normal for people to live-and-breath software, at almost all hours.

Honest question: Do they actually _want_ to live-and-breathe software, or do they work in a highly competitive and highly compensated environment where doing that is implicitly required?

This is never normal, and should not be normalized.