Bucking the System

The Philadelphia Inquirer gives an appraisal of The Cuckoo's Egg by Cliff Stoll, printed on the back of the book. It reads, "Stoll's is the ever appealing story of the little man bucking the system..." And that is right.

While reading the story, I was frustrated with Cliff. His frustration because no one helps him is not unique. Like Cliff, I have had my superiors grumble and complain at even the idea of paying me for what I do. Such bosses see that a job needs to be done, but they view it as a necessary evil. With Cliff, his boss knew that Cliff should be pursuing the hacker, yet still grumbled about this truth, seeing it as overhead. This is not an uncommon phenomenon faced by many computing professionals. Many companies were pulled in to the technology revolution kicking and screaming. For example, I can think of some (without naming names) that view the maintenance of a website as a hoop to jump through before real business can take place.

The worst part about this dilemma is that others still want to see the work happen, but they won't help, even when the work is clearly valuable, even critical. In the book, the NSA and the CIA were heavily interested in Cliff's work, but he never received help from them in doing it. Although he received plenty of recognition for his work, any underappreciated engineer will tell you that this is not the same thing. Getting called at odd hours because yet another problem arose is not my ideal kind of fame.

After all of this, the only motivation the underappreciated engineer has is the job itself. Cliff wanted to catch the hacker. After he did, he moved to Boston and kept on working computer security problems, keeping odd hours, even though that was the one field of labor for which he had received few pats on the back. Despite this, Cliff knew he was doing important work, work that made the world a better place. It allowed him to sleep better at night knowing he had defended the innocent, and even the ignorant. At least, that is how it would make me feel.