3 ms·

If anything, this strikes me as a person who just really didn't like what they were doing and eventually imploded along their own personal fault-lines. Not to b

If anything, this strikes me as a person who just really didn't like what they were doing and eventually imploded along their own personal fault-lines. Not to be overly reductive of their psychosis, of course -- one cannot disentangle the neurological from the psychological and so the way things shook out is hardly a matter of personal responsibility or playing blame. This is all to say that they have my sympathy... but also to kind of disagree with their premise. Truthfully, the "best" bad programmers never get so far as imploding. They simply manage to sabotage everything they touch while being none the wiser. They smoothly redirect blame whenever it comes their way without even consciously thinking about it, because they truthfully believe that they are in the clear.

bad416f1f5a2 4y ago
I would place a much higher significance on the reported mental health issues - it’s hard to get on disability in the US, and if you’re truly on $3k/month because you are unable to work, you have a serious disability. Otherwise? Totally agree. The worst developers are the ones that make everything they touch that much worse merely by virtue of touching it. I’ll take dead weight, “go write a bunch of printf’s and accomplish nothing” over them any day.
- fineIllregister 4y ago
  >...if you’re truly on $3k/month because you are unable to work, you have a serious disability. They're most likely talking about Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). The amount is completely unrelated to the severity of a person's disability. The reason is in the name--it's insurance for lost wages. Workers' FICA taxes are the premiums they pay while working, and are based on wages as well. So basically: the more one makes while working, means the more they pay in while working, means the more they lose when disabled, which means the more they get paid by SSDI.
  - bad416f1f5a2 4y ago
    The size of the monthly pay isn’t what is significant - having any nonzero amount is. The SSDI acceptance rate is lucky to hit 30%, typically takes multiple hearings/appeals to get a payout, and can be denied if the government can demonstrate the potential for you to work outside the field you were employed in. If you receive anything from it, it is prima facie evidence of a serious disability. So to my point, this isn’t a story about a bad programmer, it’s a story about a person who is truly so disabled that they can’t program.

bad416f1f5a2 4y ago

I would place a much higher significance on the reported mental health issues - it’s hard to get on disability in the US, and if you’re truly on $3k/month because you are unable to work, you have a serious disability. Otherwise? Totally agree. The worst developers are the ones that make everything they touch that much worse merely by virtue of touching it. I’ll take dead weight, “go write a bunch of printf’s and accomplish nothing” over them any day.

fineIllregister 4y ago
>...if you’re truly on $3k/month because you are unable to work, you have a serious disability. They're most likely talking about Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). The amount is completely unrelated to the severity of a person's disability. The reason is in the name--it's insurance for lost wages. Workers' FICA taxes are the premiums they pay while working, and are based on wages as well. So basically: the more one makes while working, means the more they pay in while working, means the more they lose when disabled, which means the more they get paid by SSDI.
- bad416f1f5a2 4y ago
  The size of the monthly pay isn’t what is significant - having any nonzero amount is. The SSDI acceptance rate is lucky to hit 30%, typically takes multiple hearings/appeals to get a payout, and can be denied if the government can demonstrate the potential for you to work outside the field you were employed in. If you receive anything from it, it is prima facie evidence of a serious disability. So to my point, this isn’t a story about a bad programmer, it’s a story about a person who is truly so disabled that they can’t program.