How are they even making things up here? If you read through the entire thing they have a very valid case against Discord, ranging from the UX being confusing (i.e. "data protection by default") to actually storing the data they are not allowed to (i.e. illegally).
If you operate in a jurisdiction you operate by that jurisdictions laws. Do you think European companies don't have to abide by US laws when operating in the US?
Most of the IT workplaces in Sweden (Spotify included) aren't unionised even though many are part of unions. In those cases what the unions can do is provide legal support to you if you needed.
Are those the only parts of the spectrum that exists? Passionate and lazy?
I'd say that sentiment is lazy. There are lots of reasons why someone wouldn't or couldn't spend time learning Kotlin (kids, other family, other hobbies, list could go on).
Did you get a competitive salary or ~1% of share of the company as an early employee? If not, you were used. The aforementioned is a typical Berlin startup. A favorite of mine is when a company tries to pay you with debt, i.e. instead of being just a developer, you become a banker for your future boss' idea. I wish I were joking...
Not hard at all, there is plenty of information about wages in IT. If you understand the root of the article, the US versus Europe comparison, take Silicon Valley numbers and compare to €58k and you will find it ridiculously low. Damn, you get more in Romania (Bucharest or Cluj), I am not kidding you.
What I see in Germany is that some of the startups are basically contracted by larger companies, tasked to develop complex solutions for a fraction of the price that an established company would require for the same task.
I wouldn't really consider those startups since they're not trying to develop their own product for a market segment. Those are more like small development shops (there are a lot of those here in the US as well).
