In praise of normal companies

In recent years, many tech companies have changed faster than their own teams. We’ve all already assimilated that we moved from a period of abundance (remote work, above-market salaries, and cultures heavily centered on employee experience) to a moment where the key word seems to be efficiency and optimization.

It’s no surprise: the market corrected the excesses of the pandemic, and the arrival of AI pushed many companies to rethink how and where to invest their time and talent. The result is a sector that has shifted toward more austere models, more focused on delivery and productivity and, at times, more rigid and less people-friendly.

There’s a lot of talk about how the pendulum has swung. The cultural pendulum, too.

We went from proudly showcasing a Chief Happiness Officer to returning to a Get Shit Done culture.

This change isn’t necessarily bad. What’s worrying is that, in many organizations, the pursuit of efficiency has pushed something essential out of the priorities: creating environments where people can work with clarity, focus, and reasonable conditions. And above all, places where people actually want to work.

Meanwhile, the sector keeps repeating mantras that already sound stale: “10x engineers,” “bar raisers,” “Top 1% Talent.” All odes to individual productivity or to finding the “best possible talent,” as if the future were built by hiring unicorns instead of designing systems where normal people can perform at their best.

Evidence and experience point in another direction: what truly makes a difference isn’t having isolated geniuses but capable, collaborative teams that function well as a whole.

And for that, you don’t need companies that are extraordinary on the surface. You need the opposite: normal companies.

And remember: normal does not mean mediocre.

Normal means stable, clear, predictable, and well designed.

It means having processes that allow people to work with focus and grow without fear.

It means containing pressure instead of adding more.

It means anyone can contribute without needing to be brilliant.

And it means that if we say we take care of people, we actually do it. That it doesn’t become another one of those values painted on the wall but stored away in a drawer.

In an increasingly tense tech market, heavily influenced by international gurus, being a normal company is almost an act of rebellion. And, paradoxically, a huge competitive advantage.

This article is a reflection on why normal companies (those that often go unnoticed) may be the best response for a sector where I see more and more disengagement.

And on what we can learn from them to build places where people want to work and, above all, where they can do their best work.

⚠️ Disclaimer: I’m not a particularly original person, so this article is based on Charity Majors’ “In praise of normal engineers”, which I recommend reading because it speaks from the engineers’ point of view and is much better than mine.

The myth of the 10x engineer

For years, and especially now with AI, the tech industry has built a narrative around exceptional talent: the 10x engineer, that brilliant profile capable of unlocking complex systems, producing code at impossible speed, or solving problems others don’t even see.

This myth has been convenient for many organizations because it shifts responsibility to the individual: if you find “the best,” everything will be fine.

But this narrative has two obvious problems.

The first is that it reduces productivity to an individual measure, ignoring that modern tech work is a collective effort. Most of the time doesn’t go into writing code but into understanding systems, coordinating with other teams, reviewing changes, debugging production issues, or making technical decisions. None of these tasks scale simply because you have an extraordinary person if the surrounding system is confusing, slow, or inconsistent.

The second problem is that building an organization around exceptional individuals creates a dependency that is hard to sustain. Even the most brilliant engineers are experts only in some contexts, technologies, or product stages. When the environment changes (codebase, tools, team, roadmap urgency, company size), their relative advantage decreases.

What differentiates stable and consistent companies is not how many brilliant people they have, but how easy it is for a normal developer to contribute, move forward, and have impact.

In well-designed organizations, a competent developer does not need to be a specialist to:

• deploy safely
  
• diagnose a problem without depending on others
  
• understand the system without interpreting hundreds of implicit layers
  
• deliver value consistently
  

Building systems where anyone can contribute does not make the company less ambitious. It makes team building easier and makes the company more resilient and tolerant to turnover.

Increasingly demanding conditions

The last few years have brought profound changes in how tech companies operate. Growth is no longer the priority. Revenue and profitability are.

This shift has strained the culture of many companies.

Several recurring patterns appear across organizations.

Constantly changing processes

The arrival of AI has created the need (or the sensation) to incorporate it into everything. New tools, new reviews, new workflows. Some teams introduce significant changes every quarter in how they define, develop, or deliver software.

The problem isn’t innovation. It’s lack of stability.

It’s hard to feel safe when everything changes every week. Routines become harder to build. Cognitive load increases without adding real value. People end up exhausted in ways they weren’t before.

A culture of excellence that creates pressure

Many companies have embraced concepts like “high performance,” “raising the bar,” or “pursuing excellence.”

In theory, it’s about excellence. In practice, it often becomes a toxic environment where people must constantly prove more: more speed, more impact, more initiative.

The intention is positive, but the message is that the standard is never truly reached. And that wears people down.

The return to the office and the loss of personal margin

The remote vs. in-person debate has resurfaced globally. Many professionals have lost autonomy and work-life balance gained during the pandemic.

Mandatory return to the office changes routines, schedules, availability, and well-being.

And to be clear: we’re talking about mandatory return, not the option to go when you want.

The expectation of “doing more with less,” pushed by AI

AI has created the assumption that teams will multiply productivity without increasing resources.

No one knows whether this is real or will be. Adoption requires time, learning, and adjustment. Many teams feel pressure to produce more from day one, even if the environment is not ready.

The culture becomes increasingly harsh. A little more. And a little more. Until one day the magic breaks. You realize this is no longer the company you joined. And you no longer want to work there.

This is where normal companies matter: those that care about people as much as about numbers.

What a “normal company” really is

A normal company is not unambitious or conformist. It understands something essential: a technical team needs a safe, clear, and stable environment to do good work.

Normal means stable

A normal company does not reinvent its process every month. Innovation happens from a solid foundation. Stability reduces friction and prevents the team from having to relearn its job every few weeks.

Normal means clear

Clear roles, clear expectations, and manageable priorities.

Clarity is respect. It removes anxiety. It avoids constant “prove yourself” dynamics.

Normal means safe

A normal company provides the conditions to work without fear:

• reliable deployment pipelines
  
• basic observability
  
• safe environments for experimentation
  
• internal tools to reduce bugs
  
• processes that don’t punish mistakes
  

And it also provides psychological safety:

• you can ask questions without feeling inadequate
  
• you can show doubts without losing credibility
  
• you can say “I don’t know” or “this isn’t clear”
  
• you have time and understanding when you need it
  

Without safety, quality collapses.

Normal means a competent person can do good work

People are not expected to be multidisciplinary superheroes.

What matters is sustained, realistic contribution.

Normal means the system matters more than individuals

Productivity comes from well-coordinated teams, not heroic individuals.

A normal company works even when key people are not present.

I just want a normal company

Normal companies are attractive because they focus on what matters: creating places where people want to work and can do their best work.

These traits define a normal company people want to join:

Stable processes and low noise

Clear workflow. Few surprises. Changes only when needed.

Manageable and well-communicated priorities

The team knows what’s important. Roadmap surprises happen, but chaos cannot be constant.

Technical and psychological safety as a standard

Predictable systems. Controlled deployments. The ability to ask questions without fear.

Realistic expectations

AI is used where it adds value, not as a justification for impossible workloads.

Sensible flexibility

In-office decisions are made based on real needs, not control. Forcing attendance is tightening the rope too much.

Balanced teams, not heroic ones

The system is designed so most competent people can deliver value consistently.

In a moment when many companies have made culture unnecessarily complex, these practices bring back something scarce: the feeling that working in tech can be demanding and challenging without being exhausting.

The future belongs to normal companies

Should we go back to foosball tables, CHOs, and gym passes?

What truly matters is creating an environment where most people can work well.

Paradoxically, the companies closest to true “high performance” aren’t the ones talking about it, but the ones taking care of the basics: stable processes, reasonable expectations, daily safety, and coherent technical decisions.

Even the CEO of Linear, one of the most beloved tools among developers, has spoken against hustle culture and 996:
https://www.fastcompany.com/91445544/the-1-25-billion-ai-startup-that-rejects-hustle-culture?mvgt=hxpK2EYDEAPj

In a market where everything moves fast, building a normal company isn’t going against the current. It’s simply building a company where people want to be.