I've lived this experience, many times over, and the story is true at it's core. Some folks might dismiss this as a fantasy scenario, and sure, it's missing a

I've lived this experience, many times over, and the story is true at it's core. Some folks might dismiss this as a fantasy scenario, and sure, it's missing a lot of details. In the real world, the lone programmer doesn't get to write an efficient program for different reasons: the software design is locked down by managers, there is fear of abandoning the poorly written legacy code, newer programming tools aren't allowed because most developers don't know them, or there is a sunk cost of an expensive software license that has already been purchased. The story is symbolic, but the lessons are universally true, even today. For managers: conventional methods of judging productivity are unreliable. For developers: few organizations will enable you to work optimally.