Sure, developer time matters. But you've got to be able to recognise sunk cost, the product of 100 hours work should only ship if it is better than what came before. The end result matters more than the developers time - if it fails, there won't be any money to pay the developer, no matter how long he has been working.
I believe productivity does matter to him. It's just that he wants people who can a-ha their way out of the problem, the gifted people.
So loosing thousands of good/average people in favor of couple of elites is the price he is willing to pay. Meaning he does care for productivity.
It's just that this "care" manifests in a utterly devious and fiendish manner.
Because he is a bastard. And I understand, because I am a bastard. And I don't care either. We don't care about being nice, because being nice to weak people doesn't help anyone. Weak people fail if you are nice to them or not. Strong people don't care if you are nice. If you are not nice they will challenge you. If you are strong you earn respect and allies. If your a weak wise guy, you better GTFO :).
Essentially it's about being nice to weak people (giving debugger). And in the world of Elite it doesn't make sense.
Think thermopylae It's an wonderful example of what a group of elites can do. And I believe the Spartans weren't known as nice and understanding bunch.
"I believe the Spartans weren't known as nice and understanding bunch."
Actually, I think it was the opposite in terms of their general personalities. They were renown and respected for doing the "right thing" no matter what the personal cost may be. There's a story to that effect, which might be only a legend, but it goes like this:
"An old man wandering around the Olympic Games looking for a seat was jeered at by the crowd until he reached the seats of the Spartans, whereupon every Spartan younger than him, and some that were older, stood up and offered him their seat. The crowd applauded and the old man turned to them with a sigh, saying "All Greeks know what is right, but only the Spartans do it." (http://www.pbs.org/empires/thegreeks/background/8c.html)
I believe productivity does matter to him. It's just that he wants people who can a-ha their way out of the problem, the gifted people.
That's just misplaced arrogance, backed by confirmation bias. Truly gifted individuals are smart enough to use the best tool to solve the problem at hand as efficiently as possible. That tool is sometimes a debugger.
Here's a quick survey:
FreeBSD: Kernel Debugger.
Solaris: Kernel Debugger.
NetBSD: Kernel Debugger.
OpenBSD: Kernel Debugger.
IRIX: Kernel Debugger.
Darwin: Kernel Debugger.
Linux: Nope.
Now of all those operating systems, would you really say that the developers that added a debugger for their own use are not the gifted and 'elite'?
Sadly, the company I work for is full of weak, ordinary people :).
Sadly, the company I work for is full of weak, ordinary people :).
Now you see, what I said above could only be understood by people who are fundamentally different.
Should everybody be like that? No way!
Are people like that suitable for any job? No way! But there are jobs that they CAN and DO better than other people.
The whole weak/strong argument does not mean that people like us kick old ladies. But it's pretty likely that we are willing to go against the odds to prove a point or make a difference.
I'm sad that you don't understand the underlying meaning, but I will not shed a tear.
You had me until you compared yourself to the Spartans, a people who were strong because they let their weaker babies die. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infanticide
There's a moral line between "it's not my job to help you succeed" and "it's not my job to help you live".
