[mscarborough]

>> I’m leaving bioinformatics to go work at a software company with more technically ept people and for a lot more money.

More money, good on you. Starting off your critique of your former colleagues with "technically ept people'...not going to get a lot of sympathy for the correctness of your work.

[aheilbut]

Everyone is jumping on that, but (while I had to look it up too) 'ept' actually is a real word:

from the OED:

ept, adj. Pronunciation: /ɛpt/ Etymology: Back-formation < inept adj.

  Used as a deliberate antonym of ‘inept’: adroit, appropriate, effective.

1938 E. B. White Let. Oct. (1976) 183, I am much obliged..to you for your warm, courteous, and ept treatment of a rather weak, skinny subject.

1966 Time 30 Sept. 7/1 With the exception of one or two semantic twisters, I think it is a first-rate job—definitely ept, ane and ert.

1976 N.Y. Times Mag. 6 June 15 The obvious answer is summed up by a White House official's sardonic crack: ‘Politically, we're not very ept.’

[SilasX]

We have the term "adept" though, which is actually in common usage and fits the intended meaning here...

[christiangenco]

That was…surprisingly thorough.

[gwern]

That is the point of the OED: to be comprehensive and include real usages.

[saraid216]

That's the point of any half-decent dictionary.

The OED is a gold standard, though.

[bdr]

James Murray was the true Scotsman.

[Paradigma11]

Isn't it more likely that he just mispelled "apt".

[droithomme]

Well, ept is obviously a back-formation and a clever and amusing one.

Etymology is straight from Latin: ineptus, which is prefix in- plus aptus (fitting or suitable). Interestingly there's also inapt which is quite similar.

edit: aheilbut's research on this is much more thorough.

[MartinCron]

I used a similar back figuring when describing a co-worker who was in the wrong job... "He's not inept, he is inapt"