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The theme behind this article is a bit dated. I'm reminded of the (probably fictional) story 15 years back about the sysadmin who only worked fully nude from 11pm until 6 am because he was that important and one of the only dudes in the universe who knew unix.

These days there are plenty of Ivy-League-Type-A-personality people who are both easy to work with and good at programming. In most situations nobody is required to deal with an extreme weirdo.

For these articles to be useful, they should be about how said weirdos can alter their behavior to be productive. I know people and even have family members that exhibit some of the traits described, and they are un or underemployed because nobody is interested in putting up with their personality quirks. Nor does anyone need to put up with them. It is still hard to find good programmers, but not nearly as hard as it used to be.

Writing it from the perspective of how to manage these people is pointless, because it is rare that anyone would be required to work with the person described. They can simply find someone better and less socially bizarre.




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