If only there was a way to measure programmers on the robustness and potential of their code, and not just on "they wrote a lot of it." The system seems to be

If only there was a way to measure programmers on the robustness and potential of their code, and not just on "they wrote a lot of it." The system seems to be that it is much more advantageous to your career to rapidly produce gobs of spaghetti -- and confound everyone around you -- than to build elegant code that enables everyone around you. You look better when everyone but you is confounded; you look replaceable when everyone around you can extract as much value out of your clean, powerful code as you can.