An acolyte found Master Foo meditating in his garden, sitting under his favorite tree. The acolyte waited until he was acknowledged. The Wise One did so, by asking what was troubling him.

"Why is it that Great Developers generally don't work for Corporate IT? And, when they do, they leave after a short amount of time and become contractors or work for a software-only shop?

Master Foo leaned against the tree, thought for a minute and begun to speak:

"Corporate IT is like a large city that had a great amount of cars. Everyone was upset with how bad the traffic was -- cars drove too fast, people were injured, it was horrible.

"A man worked for the city leaders and he was really good at solving problems. So the mayor put this man in charge of fixing the traffic problem. The mayor told everyone do to what the new Head of Traffic said, without question or hesitation.

he has only ridden in one a few times. No one asked him if he knew anything about cars. But the money was good so he took the job. He would tackle it like he did all the other problems -- by looking at data.

"As he looked at the data and reports that people gave him, the Head of Traffic noticed that a lot of accidents happened at stoplights. Not only did people get hurt in those accidents, but they delayed traffic. So the problem was simple -- cars needed to stop when the lights were green as well as when the lights were red.

"And the people that worked in the Traffic Department were perplexed by this but they were told to obey without question. So they posted the rule and told the police to enforce it. The police were also perplexed but they were also told to do what Head of Traffic said, so they started issuing tickets when drivers went through green lights.

"Obviously the people in the city were angry about this -- it took even longer to get from place to place! But, as more and more people stopped at the green lights as well as the red ones, they did notice that it was safer. So the citizens stopped complaining and just left much, much earlier to get to their destination.

"Of course, there are always people that have to get around the rules. Some started walking, and that was faster most of the time, so more people started doing that. And, soon, accidents were happening there. So the Head of Traffic was called on again, to address the problem. He first said no one was allowed to walk along the street, so more people rode bicycles. And the there were more bike accidents, so soon the law was to not ride bicycles anymore. Then people started on unicycles and laws were made there. It just went on and on and on.

Master Foo then asked, "Who has the most guilt in this city?"

The acolyte quickly answered, "It is the Head of Traffic, of course."

Master Foo said, "He actually has the least amount of guilt. It's not his fault he was given a job he knows nothing about."

Upon hearing this, the acolyte was enlightened.