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What I find interesting is even looking back he still has no awareness of the situation going on. I find this to be a huge issue with developers in general, the

What I find interesting is even looking back he still has no awareness of the situation going on. I find this to be a huge issue with developers in general, they don't seem to ever pick up on social skills even when it is right in their face. He got in because no one cared about anything other than someone willing to push through boring contract design work for low AF pay. He seems to still believe his lying(skill?) is what got him the job. It sort of was in the sense they wanted someone young dumb delusional and enthusiastic to work for next to nothing on what was essentially boring boilerplate work. In a system that even at the time he could see was a disaster to work in. Then used him as a negotiating tool to lay off other decently paid workers after he "proved" that what they did to him could be done. He calls them "expert manipulators" but there is nothing expert here, this is ham-fisted pointed haired boss 101. TL;DR the company wanted a useful idiot with enthusiasm to push through a broken system to do a mind numbing job for next to no pay. The author still doesn't seem to get this.

fezzez 5y ago
Completely agree. That was my takeaway as well.
ferdowsi 5y ago
They don't teach "pointed haired boss 101" in school. It's great that you are smart, and know this stuff now. But most people have to go through the hard lessons of having their good will and faith be abused by bad-faith actors.
- VRay 5y ago
  They should, though.. I had one profess with real world experience who tried to explain this stuff, and the other dozen or so were lifelong academics who didn’t know anything about reality. Really wish I’d listened to the one more..
- zenithd 5y ago
  Places like HN and Reddit (or /. back in the day) are fantastic resources for learning "pointed haired boss 101".
  - ikiris 5y ago
    Yep, bad faith actors and useful idiots are 80% of the commenters.
    - throwaway1492 5y ago
      I've been a "bad faith actor" and I will again if I have the chance. As a development manager I have taken credit for the work of others and exploited multiple companies for my own gain. I personally believe it's foolish to not play the game for ones own benefit.
      - denton-scratch 5y ago
        I appreciate your cynicism/realism, and I don't think you should be voted-down for telling it like it is. I don't like the idea of taking credit for the work of your staff; but if your team (run by you) gets credit for a job of work, some of that should absolutely be rubbing off on you. I've always had better things to do than scheming and game-playing. "Life" is about playing games for one's own benefit; I managed fine, without knocking too many other people down. But some people treat Life as zero-sum. That's fine too - but watch as other people steer clear of you.
- HeyLaughingBoy 5y ago
  They do, actually, but you have to seek those courses out yourself. Problem is that most engineers don't realize that Psychology and Organizational Behavior are important to learn until it's too late. And yeah, I'm one of those who had to play catch up later and learn all that stuff the hard(er) way.
jermaustin1 5y ago
At 18 and a few weeks old, I did NOT have the awareness. At 33 and a few months, though, I feel I'm better aware of being taken advantage of, and have raised my hourly requirements to better suit contract work. I had no negotiation skills, and even if I did, they wouldn't have upped the pay, and then I would have been back to working at a call center for $8/hr. The job was a crap job, but that job taught me a LOT about being a software developer.
- ecshafer 5y ago
  Any crap software job is better than a crap retail, crap food service or crap call center job. You made the right move, and I am sure even a crap $30k a year software dev job paid dividends in experience. Coming right out of high school you did the right thing
  - kbenson 5y ago
    Agreed, because a crap software job is like a crap apprentice job to a tradesman. The work might suck, but there's knowledge being imparted or, at least there to be sought out or absorbed. It's the same reason a few years apprenticed to a plumber or carpenter is better than a few years in retail. At least you'll have come out the other end with something more applicable to a career, if you decide to pursue it.
- asdfman123 5y ago
  I've learned not to regret my early failures in life. They're usually low-cost ways to prevent more significant failures later. You're as smart as you are today BECAUSE you made those mistakes. You've gotten the painful part out of the way.
  - jermaustin1 5y ago
    I agree. And like I concluded the post. I would probably do it all exactly the same.
- mst 5y ago
  My first programming job was at minimum wage. They were using me for cheap labour, I was using them to get a CV that allowed me to get a real salary somewhere else later. I literally said this to the director who hired me (a few months in, in his office with nobody else around) and was rewarded with a huge grin because I'd guessed correctly that he'd prefer cheap labour who -understood- that was the deal and wasn't afraid to own their half of it. Worked out fine for me, and I did duly leave to take a much better paid job after about a year.
spfzero 5y ago
I kind of guessed a different situation, where a small development team has asked repeatedly for more staff, since they were not making acceptable progress. Owner balks for months because maybe money is tight, but finally relents. Says 'you can add someone, but we can only pay 30K.' Devs probably thought they could at least unload some gruntwork onto the new person and free up time to accelerate development. This was a small business with a late product. Probably circling the drain, and not much cash flow to play with. The only way an owner would approve a rewrite suggested by his most junior dev with only a few weeks on the job, is out of pure desperation.

fezzez 5y ago

Completely agree. That was my takeaway as well.

ferdowsi 5y ago

They don't teach "pointed haired boss 101" in school. It's great that you are smart, and know this stuff now. But most people have to go through the hard lessons of having their good will and faith be abused by bad-faith actors.

VRay 5y ago
They should, though.. I had one profess with real world experience who tried to explain this stuff, and the other dozen or so were lifelong academics who didn’t know anything about reality. Really wish I’d listened to the one more..
zenithd 5y ago
Places like HN and Reddit (or /. back in the day) are fantastic resources for learning "pointed haired boss 101".
- ikiris 5y ago
  Yep, bad faith actors and useful idiots are 80% of the commenters.
  - throwaway1492 5y ago
    I've been a "bad faith actor" and I will again if I have the chance. As a development manager I have taken credit for the work of others and exploited multiple companies for my own gain. I personally believe it's foolish to not play the game for ones own benefit.
    - denton-scratch 5y ago
      I appreciate your cynicism/realism, and I don't think you should be voted-down for telling it like it is. I don't like the idea of taking credit for the work of your staff; but if your team (run by you) gets credit for a job of work, some of that should absolutely be rubbing off on you. I've always had better things to do than scheming and game-playing. "Life" is about playing games for one's own benefit; I managed fine, without knocking too many other people down. But some people treat Life as zero-sum. That's fine too - but watch as other people steer clear of you.
HeyLaughingBoy 5y ago
They do, actually, but you have to seek those courses out yourself. Problem is that most engineers don't realize that Psychology and Organizational Behavior are important to learn until it's too late. And yeah, I'm one of those who had to play catch up later and learn all that stuff the hard(er) way.

jermaustin1 5y ago

At 18 and a few weeks old, I did NOT have the awareness. At 33 and a few months, though, I feel I'm better aware of being taken advantage of, and have raised my hourly requirements to better suit contract work. I had no negotiation skills, and even if I did, they wouldn't have upped the pay, and then I would have been back to working at a call center for $8/hr. The job was a crap job, but that job taught me a LOT about being a software developer.

ecshafer 5y ago
Any crap software job is better than a crap retail, crap food service or crap call center job. You made the right move, and I am sure even a crap $30k a year software dev job paid dividends in experience. Coming right out of high school you did the right thing
- kbenson 5y ago
  Agreed, because a crap software job is like a crap apprentice job to a tradesman. The work might suck, but there's knowledge being imparted or, at least there to be sought out or absorbed. It's the same reason a few years apprenticed to a plumber or carpenter is better than a few years in retail. At least you'll have come out the other end with something more applicable to a career, if you decide to pursue it.
asdfman123 5y ago
I've learned not to regret my early failures in life. They're usually low-cost ways to prevent more significant failures later. You're as smart as you are today BECAUSE you made those mistakes. You've gotten the painful part out of the way.
- jermaustin1 5y ago
  I agree. And like I concluded the post. I would probably do it all exactly the same.
mst 5y ago
My first programming job was at minimum wage. They were using me for cheap labour, I was using them to get a CV that allowed me to get a real salary somewhere else later. I literally said this to the director who hired me (a few months in, in his office with nobody else around) and was rewarded with a huge grin because I'd guessed correctly that he'd prefer cheap labour who -understood- that was the deal and wasn't afraid to own their half of it. Worked out fine for me, and I did duly leave to take a much better paid job after about a year.

spfzero 5y ago

I kind of guessed a different situation, where a small development team has asked repeatedly for more staff, since they were not making acceptable progress. Owner balks for months because maybe money is tight, but finally relents. Says 'you can add someone, but we can only pay 30K.' Devs probably thought they could at least unload some gruntwork onto the new person and free up time to accelerate development. This was a small business with a late product. Probably circling the drain, and not much cash flow to play with. The only way an owner would approve a rewrite suggested by his most junior dev with only a few weeks on the job, is out of pure desperation.