[FleursDuMal]

It's generally a bit taboo to directly address dominance in social interactions, but you were manipulated into doing and then handing over work for nothing in return.

You were successfully made to believe you would be the bad guy for walking away when nothing could have been farther from the truth.

You worked, for nothing, on a project which belonged wholly to someone else, and they didn't even bother to turn up for project meetings.

There's often a big disconnect between people's superficial behaviour and their genuine intent, and you have to learn to read the signals which tell you the difference.

This episode might have been unpleasant but could be a cheap lesson if you learn the right things from it.

[arethuza]

"could be a cheap lesson"

Not to mention the fact they wrote it up and it is now popular on HN means that other people might learn from this and avoid getting into the same mess.

[I once did a pile of work on a proposal for a large project for a customer who turned out to be using it as part of his MBA... I probably would have noticed something was funny but he was introduced to us by Sun!]

[ehurrell]

HN has showed me that this sort of thing is more common than I expected. Any and all experiences shared help people know what to look for.

[jrs99]

the flip side is:

why would you destroy this relationship if you're the mba student. You have to realize there is a benefit to keeping the original engineer on board. There's probably a benefit to having a partner that can prototype any stupid idea you come up with.

If this were me, i'd be jamming 50% of this business down the coder's throat.

[damoncali]

It's never good to burn bridges, but giving someone 50% as they walk off to take another job doesn't seem all that smart or equitable.