How I Think: The Disconnect

Question

Why do successful Israeli companies still hire like it's 2021?

Surface Answer (Layer 1)

I can demonstrably do the work of a 3-5 person dev team with AI tools (Claude Code, Cursor, MCPs). But job posts still ask for "5 years experience, CS degree, ₪30k/month team member." The market hasn't caught up to what one person can do in 2025.

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The Full Context (Layer 2)

What I See

2021 Hiring:

"Senior Full-Stack Developer"
"5+ years experience required"
"CS degree or equivalent"
"₪25-30k/month"
"Team of 5-10 developers"
"Agile/Scrum ceremonies"
Multi-round interviews testing algorithm memorization

2025 Reality (What I Can Do):

One person with Claude Code
Production RAG system (253K messages) in days
3-tier microservices (WOTC app) solo
Platform-agnostic solutions (Supabase + Vercel + Railway + Google APIs)
Faster, often better, definitely cheaper

The Disconnect: Companies optimize for 2021 constraints that no longer exist.

Why The Gap Exists

Reason 1: VCs Demand Headcount Growth

"We're scaling" = hiring 50 people
Boards understand "team of 10 devs", not "1 AI-native dev shipping 10x"
Metrics are people-count, not output-per-person

Reason 2: Risk Aversion

Known pattern: hire 5 devs with CS degrees = safe
Unknown pattern: hire 1 self-taught AI-native dev = risky (to them)
Even if evidence shows it works, breaks their mental model

Reason 3: Cultural Inertia

Israeli tech playbook: 8200 → CS degree → startup → scale team
This worked for 20 years, hard to change
"We've always done it this way" is powerful

Reason 4: Leaders Don't Know It's Possible

Most CTOs are 40-50 years old
Haven't used Claude Code for 2.5 years like I have
Don't know what's possible with AI-assisted development
Their experience is pre-AI paradigm

What This Means For Me

I'm 2-3 years ahead of the market's understanding.

Problem: What do you do when you're right but early? Options: 1. Wait - Market catches up in 2026-2027 2. Compromise - Take traditional role, use AI secretly, get promoted fast 3. Go Around - Find US remote companies that already get it 4. Create - Build something so undeniable they have to notice

Currently exploring options 1 and 4.

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The Evidence (Layer 3)

What Traditional Team Does

Typical 5-Person Dev Team:

Frontend dev (React/Next.js)
Backend dev (Python/Node)
DevOps/Infrastructure
QA/Testing
Product/Project coordination

Timeline for RAG system: 3-6 months Cost: ₪150-200k total (₪30k × 5 people × 1-2 months minimum)

What I Did Solo

Sparkii RAG System:

Frontend: Next.js UI (in progress)
Backend: FastAPI with 4 endpoints
Infrastructure: Supabase (PostgreSQL + pgvector)
Testing: Manual + API testing
Coordination: Just me

Timeline: Day 1 to working API in ~8 hours Cost: My time + API costs (~$50 for embeddings) Difference: 100x faster, 1000x cheaper, comparable quality

WOTC Tax Processing

Traditional Approach:

Frontend team: Next.js UI
Backend team: PDF extraction, field mapping
DevOps: Deploy 3 services (Vercel + 2 Railway)
DBA: Design 109-column schema
QA: Test end-to-end

Team size: 5-7 people Timeline: 4-6 months Cost: ₪200-300k What I Did:

All of the above
Solo
~3-4 weeks
Cost: Hosting ($50/month) + my time

Difference: Same outcome, 1 person, weeks not months

Why This Works

It's not magic. It's: 1. Pattern recognition - Most problems are variations of solved problems 2. Efficient iteration - AI accelerates feedback loops 3. Platform-agnostic - Don't rebuild, orchestrate existing services 4. Focus - No meetings, no coordination overhead, deep work only 5. AI assistance - Claude Code knows thousands of patterns I'd take years to learn

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What I'm NOT Saying

NOT saying: "AI replaces all developers" Saying: "One AI-native developer can replace many traditional developers for certain types of work" NOT saying: "I'm better than teams" Saying: "For 80% of startup MVPs, my approach is faster and cheaper" NOT saying: "Traditional hiring is always wrong" Saying: "For companies building AI-native products, 2021 hiring practices are mismatched"

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Who Already Gets It

Companies That Understand (Rare):

US-based:

Replit (shipping AI-assisted development tools)
Vercel (enabling solo developers to ship fast)
Small YC startups (post-YC, pre-Series A)

Israel-based (very rare):

Superlinked (vector search - they'd understand RAG)
Maybe: Early-stage AI startups with technical founders
Individual CTOs who've experimented with Claude Code

The Pattern: Either building AI tools themselves, or run by people who use them daily

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The Question I'm Asking

Not: "How do I convince companies to hire me?"

But: "Why don't successful companies see what I see?"

And: "Where are the people who already get it?"

That's what I'm trying to understand.

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