> 10 times programmers don't exist. Maybe not, but I _can_ say that for me the problems I unstuck for customers _were_ about programming, not requirements gath

> 10 times programmers don't exist. Maybe not, but I _can_ say that for me the problems I unstuck for customers _were_ about programming, not requirements gathering or process. It usually was some small kernel of a larger codebase that was ill thought out (usually under-engineered, or solved with a naive approach that wouldn't scale/perform) and hadn't been thought out right. The solution usually involved recasting the entire approach and solving it some other way. You are right that I didn't have to deal with town halls, or scrums or any of that, and that was definitely part of the upside. But what I _did_ have to deal with as a 'fixer' was that I never know what specific skills would be required at this particular customer site. It required thinking on your feet and was frankly exhilarating to pull of.