> Pat is a programmer at a large software company. At best, he’s a middling performer; his code is a mess (initializing variables that are never used, using variable names no one else understands, etc.), he takes longer than he should, and he doesn’t even remember his own code months later.
Sounds like this large software company doesn't:
1. Know about/use linters that catch unused variables.
2. Have a code review process that would catch bad variable names that "no one else understands".
3. How many people actually remember their own code months later? That's the whole point of consistent design and good readability?
Sounds like this large software company has some systemic problems (which may be caused by promoting people like Pat... which actually ties back to the point of the article I guess).