Back in the day (when dinosaurs roamed the earth and Google had not yet evolved) I could write code in C, C++, Objective-C (shut up, they are not the same thing), csh, sh, etc. There were a host of other tools in my kit (brief macros, REXX, etc) that I could use to impress the other hiking-boot clad geeks.

Today in a re/planning meeting we discovered a piece of code that needed writing. I volunteered. And the room erupted and not in cheers.

Let me summarize:

1. Oh. My. God. No.
2. You have to be kidding.
3. Christ, don’t you have something managerial to do?

And a host of muttered stuff.

I will not even get into the commetns I last heard when I turned over a 2.5K row spreadsheet of source information for our marketing folkx.

I am not quite sure that my programming, my programming rustily, or my simple ability to manipulate data scares people most.

I think I have jumped the shark here for technical matters. It is sobering to think that there are no longer things I am allowed to do in my own get/start-up.