The worst programmer I know
Some 20 years ago, I worked at a moderately large software company that sold a desktop application for Mac and Windows. The team had mostly Mac experience and they were just getting their feet wet with Windows. So naturally the Windows version had some problems.<p>At the time, I was known as a &quot;Windows expert&quot;, so they hired me to help improve that version and help the team get more familiar with Windows programming.<p>I would often spend the first part of the day on what I called &quot;house calls&quot;: visiting other developers&#x27; offices to either pair program or troubleshoot bugs or just talk about Windows API best practices and the like. (Yes, we all had private offices!)<p>After a while, one of my colleagues asked a question that stuck in my mind: &quot;How can you afford to be so generous with your time?&quot;<p>Sure enough, a few months later I got a review with a mediocre rating and a comment: &quot;Your productivity hasn&#x27;t been quite we hoped, especially considering that the rest of the team has gotten more productive lately.&quot;<p>Which was exactly what I thought they had hired me for!