On: Programmer's Dilemma

[nikster]

Two observations:

- The worst programmers work for big corporations. Because there the overall level of competence is so low they can scrape by barely doing anything.

- Very true about keeping skills sharp and developing new skills. It's hard to do and hard to keep up but always worth it.

[mdkess → nikster]

MORE programmers work for big companies, so you get a full normal distribution, and I would imagine there's a bias toward interviewing more of the ones who got fired or poor performance reviews. You only see the tail.

[corresation → nikster]

The worst programmers also work for small companies, because it's easy be a big fish in a small pond, etc.

Or maybe there are varied workers at various levels in various organizations. No simple rule satisfies.