I hear you about the heresy, but are you sure you aren't being too hard on yourself? mismanagement can turn brilliant, passionate people into aimless zombies through demotivation and throwing you at problems that don't fit you.

also, my old boss thought Larabee was cool as hell when he got to play with it at MSR.

Maybe this is a layperson’s misunderstanding but after seeing Panther Lake hit the consumer scene I have a hard time believing Intel has a talent problem.

I’d even say what Intel is doing with Arc graphics is incredibly impressive. Coming out of nowhere to legitimately compete with a decent set of AMD/Nvidia consumer and workstation graphics cards is no small feat.

ex-Intel engineer here.

> Intel engineers, to put to bluntly: suck.

It hurts, but it is true.

> I took voluntary retirement and went to work for a smaller instrument maker. I’m way happier.

I was not so lucky. I would have loved the voluntary separation package. They did get around to doing straight large layoffs one year. My manager got laid off, I was not so lucky. I wanted the layoff package. I told him I'd happily trade places with him. He tried, but was denied. I ended up leaving anyway. Now, like you, working for a small company and much much happier.

> They didnt take years to hit profitability because of leadership.

Oh, it wasn't leadership?

> There just isn’t enough talent there because they don’t pay enough.

Ah, so it was leadership.

> The fact that something is just too hard for the talent at hand is just never offered up.

Those of us who've worked at less illustrious companies are all too familiar with that. It's definitely unpopular to mention, but it drives a lot of consulting sales.