Dave had “fuck you, pay me” programming skills

Good for Dave, although if your whole operation can't function because one person doesn't come to work (justified or not), maybe that's a sign something is wrong.

&gt; No one dared comment on Dave’s behaviour.<p>&gt; Being in Dave’s bad books meant being denied support. Support for the libraries he wrote. The libraries which powered every clients’ project.<p>&gt; I was in awe of the respect that Dave commanded.<p>Now, obviously it&#x27;s not nice to comment on one&#x27;s sexual (or fashion) preferences, but sounds like this exact same thing could have happened if Dave was smoking at desk or piling used coffee mugs.<p>A library that powers the whole company being managed by a single guy who has to answer all others&#x27; questions, and <i>selectively denying answers when he feels like</i>, is not a sign of a great programmer. It may not be a sign of a bad programmer (maybe he&#x27;s just tired of shit), but it&#x27;s certainly a sign of a poorly run place.

This was literally my plan for a few years. I had a knack for algorithm design, I&#x27;ve changed the direction of teams by writing code alone for several months.. and I really wanted to wear dresses to work for some reason. Fortunately my first breakthrough coincided with starting estrogen, so I got to present my scheduling algorithm to some execs, wearing a blouse and skirt because I felt <i>very secure.</i><p>I&#x27;m not an asshole, though, and it really doesn&#x27;t sound like Dave was that mean, other than just having skills and strong boundaries.

I think you all are missing a key element of the story. Dave was a cool dude. People liked him. He didn&#x27;t take shit, but he didn&#x27;t abuse his leverage or go on power trips.<p>And that&#x27;s part of why he got away with things.<p>Also according to the story he did spread his knowledge rather than jealously guarding it

OT, but really: Since when does a public holiday (I believe these are disclosed in advance in documents you can acquire in an office-supply store) disrupt payroll operations so badly that a paycheck is skipped?

Sounds like Dave enjoyed having the entire company as hostage. Pretty good for getting paid I guess but not someone I would want to work with.

There is a lot that could be considered wrong about this situation and a lot of directions fingers could be pointed.<p>Dave should not have been of such importance to the company in the first place. When you hire a person who brings in domain knowledge but doesn&#x27;t spread it around, you&#x27;re more renting value from them than you are buying it. In scenarios when such a singular repository of vital domain knowledge is unavoidable, relationships between that person and the rest of the company must be overseen to ensure minimal adversity and maximal alliance.<p>At the end of the day, when you build a company you are building a team. The more each member is motivated towards the team&#x27;s collective goal, the more you will be able to leverage the skills you hired onto the team towards the ends you hired them for. People like to think about technical skills as if they somehow exist independent of the human they are inside of. The reality is that the human is the portal through which the skill is delivered, and their human traits are of first class importance when considering how well they will be able to apply their skills should you choose them for your team.

Arent the best programmers the ones where the system just works without you having to be there? Dave isnt a 10x programmer is more like a -10x cry baby and the company just didnt know any better.