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I'd be happy to put, "Implemented compression alghorith that saves the company 1.5PB in data transfer a day." on my CV.

That's $15000 a day saved on data traffic. You are worth $5M+ per year now (at the same scale).

But who is exactly? Is she, or are the compression algorithm authors?

Neither. All parties involved seemed to have done their job perfectly well. It's all I can judge from here. Here on HN there seems to be too many assumptions around this blog post.

You wouldn't be happy if somebody gave you a virtual high five for your work when you were early career?

I'd be happy, but happier if it came without the hyperbole (personally).

I guess I remain critical of my efforts. For example, I would not call my sneaky effort to use old veggies and other food items in refrigerator as massive cooking innovation to keep the planet green.

How about a modest improvement for millions of users?

A "modest contribution" is not one that saves 1.5PB of data transferred.