JohnReedLOL/response.txt

## response.txt
This gist is in response to: https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/11756hp/i_am_a_bad_software_developer_and_this_is_my_life/

I think some people don't understand what a truly bad software developer is, so I am going to tell my story. I was always good at standardized exams that I studied for. The first time I took the SAT college entrance exam in the US, I scored a perfect 800 on the math and a 720 on the critical reading, for an SAT score of 1520 out of 1600 - a Harvard admissions level SAT score. I graduated with a bachelor's in computer science and was able to pass the coding interviews after studying the book "Cracking The Coding Interview", but despite having done well at interviews, I was always a worthless programmer. My first real job in 2016 was an entry level software engineering position at Amazon, and despite it being entry level, I started out with a 130k base, 20k bonus issued in monthly installments, and some vesting stock on the East coast of the US (I had multiple competing offers and negotiated up).

During my two years at Amazon, almost every task followed the same pattern. I would let my manager or senior engineer pick out an "easy" task for me in the queue. I would ask my senior engineer where in the codebase the change needed to be made (because I could never learn my way around a codebase I didn't write). I used "git blame" to find who wrote or worked on that code before me and I would go to their desk or message them asking them questions about the code because I could not learn a codebase or read code written by other people for the life of me. Then I would put print statements in between every single line and run the code over and over, asking my senior engineer for help when I got stuck or didn't know what to do, which was frequent. Eventually I managed to finish the task, but in the process I took up so much of other, more experienced people's time that they could have just completed my task in about the time I spent receiving help.

I never became able to complete any work independently. I never even was able to contribute to any open source project that I wasn't the sole author of. Despite that, I failed up, going from a job at Amazon that paid me $150,000 to another job that paid $86 an hour on W2 in a small city where my rent was $1,300 a month walking distance from work. I did not complete a single task in my three months of time there before I was fired for schizoaffective/bipolar manic psychosis.

Eventually I ended up receiving government disability benefits due to psychiatric/neurological brain issues. I now live with my parents and collect $3000 a month from the government, which I intend to keep doing for the rest of my life.

Perhaps the brain issues contributed to me being a sucky programming employee. Despite my cognitive issues, I did well on the coding tests and could write an impressive sounding resume and bullshit my way through behavioral questions, which is what I was judged on. I am a real bad software developer. If you're having a hard time getting a job but you're regularly making contributions to open source projects and independently contributing to the codebase at work, you're probably not a bad programmer - you're probably just not as good at coding problems and bullshitting.
	This gist is in response to: https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/11756hp/i_am_a_bad_software_developer_and_this_is_my_life/

	I think some people don't understand what a truly bad software developer is, so I am going to tell my story. I was always good at standardized exams that I studied for. The first time I took the SAT college entrance exam in the US, I scored a perfect 800 on the math and a 720 on the critical reading, for an SAT score of 1520 out of 1600 - a Harvard admissions level SAT score. I graduated with a bachelor's in computer science and was able to pass the coding interviews after studying the book "Cracking The Coding Interview", but despite having done well at interviews, I was always a worthless programmer. My first real job in 2016 was an entry level software engineering position at Amazon, and despite it being entry level, I started out with a 130k base, 20k bonus issued in monthly installments, and some vesting stock on the East coast of the US (I had multiple competing offers and negotiated up).

	During my two years at Amazon, almost every task followed the same pattern. I would let my manager or senior engineer pick out an "easy" task for me in the queue. I would ask my senior engineer where in the codebase the change needed to be made (because I could never learn my way around a codebase I didn't write). I used "git blame" to find who wrote or worked on that code before me and I would go to their desk or message them asking them questions about the code because I could not learn a codebase or read code written by other people for the life of me. Then I would put print statements in between every single line and run the code over and over, asking my senior engineer for help when I got stuck or didn't know what to do, which was frequent. Eventually I managed to finish the task, but in the process I took up so much of other, more experienced people's time that they could have just completed my task in about the time I spent receiving help.

	I never became able to complete any work independently. I never even was able to contribute to any open source project that I wasn't the sole author of. Despite that, I failed up, going from a job at Amazon that paid me $150,000 to another job that paid $86 an hour on W2 in a small city where my rent was $1,300 a month walking distance from work. I did not complete a single task in my three months of time there before I was fired for schizoaffective/bipolar manic psychosis.

	Eventually I ended up receiving government disability benefits due to psychiatric/neurological brain issues. I now live with my parents and collect $3000 a month from the government, which I intend to keep doing for the rest of my life.

	Perhaps the brain issues contributed to me being a sucky programming employee. Despite my cognitive issues, I did well on the coding tests and could write an impressive sounding resume and bullshit my way through behavioral questions, which is what I was judged on. I am a real bad software developer. If you're having a hard time getting a job but you're regularly making contributions to open source projects and independently contributing to the codebase at work, you're probably not a bad programmer - you're probably just not as good at coding problems and bullshitting.