October 19, 2009:

Boy genius, who isn't.

Works in a fad language in a fad milieux, both of which have peaked without his awareness. His remaining career arc is so predictable it's boring. Increasingly fewer new projects, eventually the only work will be maintenance, until by the end of the decade his now archaic niche language will be forgotten, the fragile systems he defrauded his customers with replaced by something lasting.

In there somewhere are marriage and children, so that he wakes one day with the ugly realization that he has to do something to keep a roof overhead, and there'll be college to save for, and the missus wants a bigger house, and by the way he's going bald. And he'll accept a job in technology sales because it's the only door open to him. By age forty he'll spend much of his time wondering where his life went wrong.

The result of having your ass kissed too many times by weak managers who believe it when arrogant 25-year-olds insist they're the ones who know best.