“A couple years ago engineers were sort of considered assets to tech companies and so people are trying to hire... if I can hire 100 people I'm worth $100 million... people are not thinking that way anymore.”

Engineers went from assets to liability — surface area is now a cost to minimize

Charlie describes a shift from headcount-as-value to headcount-as-risk. Companies with working native iOS and Android apps are migrating to React Native because maintaining two specialized teams is brittle, slow, and dangerous when a single specialist leaves. Engineering surface area is now a cost to minimize rather than a moat to grow.