In 1994, I worked with a young man hired as a clerk. His job was to take notes on meetings with clients and record their requirements for a software system which the rest of us would build. Jacques was ambitious and creative. His first setback on the job came when he added a few decorative bubbles at the top of one informal document to his boss. He was reprimanded, and began to think about positions where his creativity might be more welcome. Surrounded as he was by programmers earning far more than he did, he asked for a copy of Visual C++ and began teaching himself on his own time, staying a few hours after work each day to use his work computer. By the end of a month he had written a small prototype of our application. His prototype worked and ours did not. When the boss found out she fired him, pointing out that she had not authorized him to teach himself programming. Because he had used company equipment, she had a legitimate cause for firing him. Having taught himself to write software, Jacques left the company amicably.