Oh come on, I left the industry specifically to avoid thinking about how deeply structurally insane it is, I didn’t need this in the morning.

A scorpion wants to sell some software but cannot code, so it asks a frog to write the application. The frog hesitates, afraid that the scorpion might start running Scrum, but the scorpion promises not to, pointing out that they would both be out of work if they interfered with the frog’s programming. The frog considers this argument sensible and agrees to work for the scorpion. Midway through the project, the scorpion demands the frog write Confluence pages, drowning them both in paperwork. The dying frog asks the scorpion why it did this despite knowing the consequence, to which the scorpion replies: "I am sorry, but I couldn’t resist the urge. It’s my character.

The frog is confused and angry, but most importantly, drowning.

hollow, mirthless laugh

I’m not gonna do pull quotes for this one cause it’s a masterpiece from the depths of hell and I highly recommend it

Very worth the read

As others have documented, software fundamentally undermines the concept of tacit institutional knowledge which undergirds the capitalist enterprise. In order to avoid the market optimizing away their profits, companies must obfuscate their internal concepts, drawing rent from their reliance on an ever-shrinking command-and-operations structure (“Gervais principle”!) But software serves as clear technical documentation, and it tends to build upon itself, drawing out more and more of the business’ principles and operational knowledge into an interchangeable difficult-to-monopolize grey goo which is good for job-hoppers.

The good part: software tends to corrode business structure down to its capital bones, eating away at administrative jobs.

The bad part: like in Animal Farm, the software engineer can become swept up in the cult of profit,