>he'd promise the impossible to the customers and would then rely on me to get his ass out of the fire, which I inevitably found a way to do I think sometimes

>he'd promise the impossible to the customers and would then rely on me to get his ass out of the fire, which I inevitably found a way to do I think sometimes about this relationship between assholes and engineers. On one hand it's entirely manipulative and destructive to the engineer on multiple levels. On the other hand it has a track record of leading to achievements engineers probably wouldn't even attempt otherwise (or of the task actually being impossible). But looking at the positive outcomes, how do we get those achievements without assholes exploiting engineers? The sort of achievements that a reasonable engineer wouldn't even attempt because the demands seem unrealistic?