... the moderately successful perhaps are the software engineers, those who can program but can’t imagine that they will ever enjoy it, and are content to submi

... the moderately successful perhaps are the software engineers, those who can program but can’t imagine that they will ever enjoy it, and are content to submit to management discipline and to be drowned in UML (ugh!). At least I know I'm not alone in thinking that best programmers are those who simply love what they are doing. However sentimental this may sound, there's nothing else that distinguishes outstanding engineers from good ones; there's nothing else that can predict the most important career dilemma in every programmer's life: to be a coder forever or to abandon coding for management and... UML. And thanks for the post, enjoyed reading it very much.