Any programmer exposed to the bitter realities of working in a soulless commercial software company, shuffling bits on a hard disk for the same salary every month eventually develops a certain protective shell. Neither speed nor genius are rewarded, so often a professional developer begin to develop a very careful, measured style that ensures he’s never caught out by either bugs or management, which he considers to be pretty much the same thing.

5 Stages of Programmer Incompetence «  yield thought

With many thanks to Darth Panda for Buzzing this.