I'm a big fan of this project, such a cool idea and implementation. Waiting for VS Code extension!

Getting bought by a big company rarely means that the acquired employees are going to stick around for awhile.

Not necessarily true. A lot of acquisitions are 'acquihires' meaning they were bought just for their talent capital.

Acquihiring doesn't necessarily involve keeping everyone from the acquired company.

Nor does it mean keeping the company itself.

Tough problem space, but I would be excited for this!

Robot chess-boxing would be great.

This is a common idiom in US speech, like saying "choose your battles."

When you realize that all your time is free time, then you try to maximize what you get out of it. Whether that is money or something else seems like it should be up to the particular individual.

Good stuff! I'm interested in seeing more information about different cost functions.