>Nobody let go good programmers just because they are too good, that just doesn't make sense.
Yeah, they do. I've seen this happen. It's simply an occurrence of the principal-agent problem. In theory the company doesn't want to see good programmers go but poor programmers in positions of weak authority don't like to see their authority challenged by better programmers and they usually don't like change either. They are motivated to get programmers better than them let go.
Upper management (the "principal") typically don't have visibility into the development process. They usually can't tell who is good and who isn't. They can see the disastrous results of shitty code but they don't necessarily know who or what to blame (if anybody). They often end up following recommendations.
>soft skills are no less important than technical ones
This kind of misses the point.
In practice if "soft skills" end up mattering more than technical skills then that's a sign that the environment is highly politicized. Which is fine if that's what you want, but if you want to build great products and exercise your technical skills it's a very poor environment to be in.
On the bright side, if you really are that good and you're mobile (i.e. not stuck in some backwater city with a few poor quality employers) and you really were fired for being too good, and you really are much better than your coworkers then finding a better paying job should be easy.
Yeah, they do. I've seen this happen. It's simply an occurrence of the principal-agent problem. In theory the company doesn't want to see good programmers go but poor programmers in positions of weak authority don't like to see their authority challenged by better programmers and they usually don't like change either. They are motivated to get programmers better than them let go.
Upper management (the "principal") typically don't have visibility into the development process. They usually can't tell who is good and who isn't. They can see the disastrous results of shitty code but they don't necessarily know who or what to blame (if anybody). They often end up following recommendations.
>soft skills are no less important than technical ones
This kind of misses the point.
In practice if "soft skills" end up mattering more than technical skills then that's a sign that the environment is highly politicized. Which is fine if that's what you want, but if you want to build great products and exercise your technical skills it's a very poor environment to be in.
On the bright side, if you really are that good and you're mobile (i.e. not stuck in some backwater city with a few poor quality employers) and you really were fired for being too good, and you really are much better than your coworkers then finding a better paying job should be easy.