As others have said, it's not random, but woe to you if you get caught in the crosshairs. In this particular instance, the sociopath who became my boss -- best

As others have said, it's not random, but woe to you if you get caught in the crosshairs. In this particular instance, the sociopath who became my boss -- best I can figure -- blamed me for something that my previous boss did, and he rode me into the ground with crap assignments and continually-derisive language. When I finally got a chance to program something for him, towards the end of our time together, and it ran 5 times faster than his favored programmer, he questioned me like I had gotten someone else to do it or something. He was absolutely incredulous, never would admit that, hey, maybe I did know something about what I was talking about. There's a quote that goes something like, "Never get between a jerk and his goals," and that's what it felt like, for an interminable 3 years.