The just-say-no engineer was a ZIRP phenomenon

# Summary During the zero-interest-rate period (2008-2022), tech companies hired extensively and employed "just-say-no engineers" whose role was to block unnecessary code and complexity—a luxury affordable when profitability wasn't required. When interest rates rose and companies faced pressure to become profitable, they laid off engineers but attributed the cuts to AI capabilities rather than financial necessity, leaving the just-say-no engineer archetype suddenly pressured to approve AI-generated code and lower their standards.