And there are a lot of subtle little ways in which a developer can drift into this state. For example, not bothering to document how systems work, or opting to

And there are a lot of subtle little ways in which a developer can drift into this state. For example, not bothering to document how systems work, or opting to make band-aid patches to brittle systems rather than refactoring. After a while of doing the easy/lazy thing, you're eventually lording over a complex black box that only you understand. Some may find that a comfortable place to be. You become an expert; you have opportunities to be the hero. And it doesn't necessarily even happen via malicious intent. Sometimes you just don't have time to document or refactor anything, and you find yourself in a suboptimal local minimum. (Speaking from experience.)