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So, yes, some of you (Jamila) are hearing this a second time, but it needs to be said.

A young programmer was fired today. I know from personal experience that he didn’t work very hard and was really lazy. The company got him super cheap with the assumption that he would be willing to learn, but that never happened.

What affects me the most about it is that his situation (not his attitude) reminds me of where I was at the mortgage company. I think I can understand a little bit how you could despair and feel hopelessly lost if you’re just given a shitty computer and told exactly what to do. Although he didn’t work for me, I still feel guilty for not trying to help him.

The reality of it, though, is that every time I walked by where he sat, he was either on the World of Warcraft forums or was playing some online games. Not once did I see any kind of editor open. Now, granted, I get really lazy at work. Sometimes I just have to cruise around the net and do stuff while I’m letting ideas kind of marinate in my brain. But I always eventually try and tackle the problem. This kid just never got to that point, apparently.

I guess, in my mind, he was given the opportunity of a lifetime and he threw it away. This makes me sad. My experience with the mortgage company was both hilariously depressing and wonderfully magnificent. I came out the other side of it having written things I’d have never imagined I would, only because I sat there for hours throwing myself into the problem with reckless abandon. I broke stuff, did things wrong, and more than once did cartesian joins in the database which brought the whole server to a grinding halt.

But it was OK. I was making $12 an hour. A lot of mistakes and just general slowness were expected. Things are different now; I have urgent things that pop up every day that have to be fixed immediately. Giving up is never an option because there is nobody else for these problems to filter down to. But, honestly, I wouldn’t trade places with anyone because at the end of the day I feel like I actually accomplished things that matter. I wish this guy could have persevered to get to this point. I guess I think weird things.