I am a developer with 20+ yrs experience developing various systems in a what ever language the problem calls for. I like the hands on challenges that are presented to me by being a polyglot dev. I know one day I will slowly become obsolete in the eyes of some young manager, but with me goes all my knowledge about the front line. Both are needed though to some extent.

See we live in a society where we are taught to be successful means to advance to some corporate level. We forget that some of us are truly nerds and like staying in the corporate garage per se tinkering and learning it has nothing to do with being management. You can be a good leader and not be the leader( ie. creating techniques and standards that others use, knowledge transfers, etc. )

I think this guy is the extreme, but for the most part we as programmers are quirky (especially to Non-It people). At least the good ones..lol