Gabe Newell discusses the downsides of working at Valve

Sun Feb 15 2026

"That seems to be kind of a personality trait," Newell said. "Everybody thinks they want a lot of autonomy, and to be self-directed. Turns out that a lot of people don't. So, you can have really capable, successful developers who won't work well in this environment. And you really have to like customers, right."

"You have to be pretty egoless, too," interjected Erik Johnson, a longtime Valve staffer who was present alongside Newell during the brief. You have to be pretty egoless to just do what customers ask you to do, right. You have to admit you're wrong. Often."