Are we belitteling people now because they have intrinsic standards and pride in the quality of their work instead of blindly chasing whatever is best for their replaceable career in a hypercapitalistic environment?
Aside from the GP comment calling the guy "kid", it doesn't seem especially condescending to me.
I read it more like "Yeah, we've all been there. It's a sucky lesson to learn, but in the end he's likely to be wiser (albeit more jaded) to these things."
