IMO, that's a bit too cynical. How could a business grow if it doesn't create any values at all?
Reality is more nuanced and what can be considered 'value' are harder to tell but overall I think one should always strive for excellence in making values for the society. My experience working in different jobs (most are non IT) is that as long as you can create values, there will be a suitable place for your ability.
>How could a business grow if it doesn't create any values at all?
He wasn't saying that the business doesn't create any value. He was saying that the people who created the value were not the ones rewarded for it.
"My experience working in different jobs (most are non IT) is that as long as you can create values, there will be a suitable place for your ability."
I think it's easier to fit in if you either don't create a lot of value or you create a lot of value and expect your reward to be commensurate with somebody who who doesn't.
I think developer jobs are a bit different to most because the effects are amplified and the value is hard to recognize. It's possible for somebody who is very good to create a huge amount of value and not have it perceived and somebody who is not good at all to actively destroy value (e.g. take a good code base and turn it into a buggy technical debt ridden shitshow) and also not have it perceived. I've personally seen the latter happen and everybody just chalked up the resultant lost business to inevitable bad luck.
Reality is more nuanced and what can be considered 'value' are harder to tell but overall I think one should always strive for excellence in making values for the society. My experience working in different jobs (most are non IT) is that as long as you can create values, there will be a suitable place for your ability.