The reason I'm only a geek in my private time
The icon is appropriate.
Many many years ago, I wrote code. A specification was written for us by somebody who sort of understood the problem, but nothing about the application of that to a computer. That was supposed to be our job, to take the spec and make it code.
Only, it wasn't. Our job, it transpires, was to take the spec extremely literally and make it code. An example I remember was a set of values that were multiplied by powers of two. I forget the reason, index offset maybe? But it was basically a calculation that the sixteen bit processor could do as a simple arithmetic shift. But no. The spec said that the value had to be multiplied, so a costly multiplication routine needed to be invoked. But we couldn't write one because we already had an even costlier multiplication routine that worked with fixed point numbers. So, yes, we took a value and converted it to fixed point and multiplied it and converted it back. Hundreds of machine cycles for something that ought to have been one instruction.
Why? Because the spec said so and some asshole manager wasn't going to accept any deviation from the spec. NONE.
The project was full of stuff like that, and arguments between the programmers (I was just a junior keyboard monkey) and the manglement were common. And since the higher ups understood their sycophants and not us, we were overruled every single time. I left before the project was anywhere near finished (and already late) and it was an utter piece of shit. Bloated, slow, horrific. Nobody wanted to put their name to it. But, alas, it completely followed the spec. The spec written by somebody barely competent to use a pocket calculator.
Suffice to say, I took a completely different career path. Pays less than a developer, sure, but less stress and I got to meet some interesting people. Best discussion I ever had with somebody was working as a carer in a nursing home with this excited old lady jumping up and down about as much as possible in a wheelchair. Why? Official secrets was up, she helped bust the Enigma and had been waiting a lifetime to talk about it. And she did. Utterly fascinating how it worked and the methods used to reverse engineer something just by looking at the encoded messages.
I don't regret my decision, but I do regret that once upon a time people were valued for their skills. Writing code, running an effective ward (in a hospital), being a blacksmith... and somewhere along the line we all accepted these total and utter losers to come along, call themselves fancy titles, tell us all what to do. They don't have a bloody clue. I bet you could randomly fire at least half the management from any company and when the shock settles down, you'd realise that they weren't actually that necessary and maybe just maybe the workers would be more effective by not having people that don't understand their job telling them how to do their job, and of course (especially in high concentration jobs like programming) not having to stop everything mid morning for yet another stupid fucking "update" meeting where everybody is brought together to say where they are different to yesterday, or the day before that. It doesn't help the programmers, it doesn't help the other workers, it's only done in order to make the management feel like they are important.
They are the reason we're all screwed. People worship the guy with the big desk and the company car.
And the people that can actually do the work? Diminishing, mostly due to the actions of the aforementioned parasites.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
