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That doesn't sound so much like a brilliant jerk as a midwit egomaniac, which are pretty common on the ground in programming. I've worked with people like that

by gozur88 10y ago

That doesn't sound so much like a brilliant jerk as a midwit egomaniac, which are pretty common on the ground in programming. I've worked with people like that too, and what they're really doing under the guise of making your code better is rewriting modules because it's less trouble than figuring out how the existing code works. Invariably they break something in the rewrite, too, because they didn't understand the full scope of the problem domain (which, circling back, is why they didn't understand the original code). And of course when you assign them to solo projects they fail. Because they're not very good at software development.

jmaygarden 10y ago
That's very well put. The "mid-wit egomaniac" is much more destructive than the "brilliant jerk." The jerk at least knows that rewriting working code is expensive and risky.
vlunkr 10y ago
That's probably pretty accurate. He was really brilliant, and had extremely broad technical knowledge, but he was not as brilliant has he believed himself to be. Since his code was difficult for anyone else to follow, and as mentioned earlier, everything was over-engineered out of existence.
Smushman 10y ago
Success can be determined by many different things; but pretty universally in programming not getting the job done correctly (the expected inputs and outputs just aren't there) is an issue. Which confirms your interpretation and labeling of the 'midwit egomaniac'. The sad part - it is not usually immediately clear which kind of jerk your dealing with, since they behave the same! Secondarily, it is not immediately clear to an outsider upon observation which is which either... Summary I drew: There are genuine mental health related conditions that can cause someone to be a jerk AND still be brilliant. When you find that, you have to first separate them off so as not to detract from others work. Secondly if they can't cut it then let them go.

by gozur88 10y ago

jmaygarden 10y ago

That's very well put. The "mid-wit egomaniac" is much more destructive than the "brilliant jerk." The jerk at least knows that rewriting working code is expensive and risky.

vlunkr 10y ago

That's probably pretty accurate. He was really brilliant, and had extremely broad technical knowledge, but he was not as brilliant has he believed himself to be. Since his code was difficult for anyone else to follow, and as mentioned earlier, everything was over-engineered out of existence.

Smushman 10y ago

Success can be determined by many different things; but pretty universally in programming not getting the job done correctly (the expected inputs and outputs just aren't there) is an issue. Which confirms your interpretation and labeling of the 'midwit egomaniac'. The sad part - it is not usually immediately clear which kind of jerk your dealing with, since they behave the same! Secondarily, it is not immediately clear to an outsider upon observation which is which either... Summary I drew: There are genuine mental health related conditions that can cause someone to be a jerk AND still be brilliant. When you find that, you have to first separate them off so as not to detract from others work. Secondly if they can't cut it then let them go.