[specialist]

I am just a fair programmer.

But I create great insights. Whole new ways to see a problem. Making the intractable and complex simple and obvious with a novel mental model.

For instance, I replaced a high end CAD/Illustrator style print production workflow with a simple form. Answer some questions and out pops a production plan.

It took me 4 years to earn that insight. The entire industry modeled the flow information exactly backwards (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Job_Definition_Format). It took me forever to overcome my initial misunderstand of the problem -- I mean really, how conceited am I to think everyone else is wrong and no one else thought of this before me -- and see the problem like the production workers do. I had to bridge the domains of print production and software design.

Alas, it's been a while since I've had a gig which could afford that kind of investment. My last gig, recommenders for fashion, which turned out to be a complete hoax, devs were slaves to JIRA, "just do 80%" and move on, throw everything away every 2 years, unless it's "legacy", in which case just suffer with it.

I wonder if there's much room left for dinosaurs like me.