Programmers Don’t Believe in Tears

He had gone ten years without taking a single day off, was still fixing bugs at three in the morning, and on his birthday, HR called him into a meeting room

“Anyone over 35 is expendable. That’s the industry rule.”

A rule?

He stared at the glaring “N” on the severance agreement and thought of the core system he had built, which supported the company’s hundred-billion-yuan market value. He thought of his daughter’s drawing on his desk: “Daddy is a superhero.” He thought of his wife saying last night, “We’re about to fall behind on the mortgage.”

Fine. Let’s play by the rules.