On that existential tangent, there are times I find it comforting that fools pay me to write code they want written.  It&#x27;s like ghostwriting: it pays the bills.  You write a biography for any idiot the way they want it.  The &#x27;authors&#x27; buy 300,000 copies of their own book through phantom distributors to prop it up to the NYT top 100 list, then they slap their name to it and you go home to your two cats and tell them we don&#x27;t have to eat garbage tonight.<p>Other times I yearn working on a popular open-source program or a library or a tool so that I can slap my name to it and actually know what I&#x27;m working on, and get some recognition.  Or even criticism, because meaningful feedback by peers who actually understand what you do is great.