Managing Humans: Biting and Humorous Tales of a Software Engineering Manager, Third Edition

© Michael Lopp 2016

Michael Lopp, Managing Humans, 10.1007/978-1-4842-2158-7_47

47. Avoiding the Fez

Investments in avoiding irrelevance

Michael Lopp¹ 

(1)Los Gatos, California, USA

Fez.

Fez is a senior engineer who works for me. He’s fictional, but you know Fez. He’s the guy who wrote that piece of code 9 million years ago that everyone is dependent on, but no one knows what exactly it does because Fez didn’t bother to comment a single line . . . oh yeah, and he wrote it in Forth.

Fez has his own office and he nods a lot. It’s the nod of a man who believes he’s got rock-solid job security because his technology is critical. Fez bugs a lot of people, but when it hits the fan, Fez saves the day because he’s carefully cordoned off a critical path that ...