This guy&#x27;s job is what originally attracted me to software engineering... the idea you could be so good and important to a company that they just pay you to pump out something awesome and let you do it.  Granted this focuses on a failure, but he had many successes and the failure is Atari&#x27;s fault for pushing an impossible deadline.<p>Of course times have changed and this isn&#x27;t a practical scenario anymore, and likely for good reason. But it still reminds me of how a simple DOS game that a man could do on his own was state of the art.  Sure there&#x27;s the odd app like Flappy Bird that goes viral and garners success, but that&#x27;s the luck of the lottery, really.  It&#x27;s different from back then.<p>I miss that simplicity.