
Despite what your resume says, the thing that you bring to your job is not software knowledge. Clicking around in software might feel like design, but the real work doesn’t happen on screen. No, you earn your paycheck by exercising the squishy stuff between your ears.
If you are asked to do a sub-human job and you pour your humanity into it, your boss is caught in a lie. He is forced to acknowledge both the dehumanizing request he is making as well as the poetry represented in your work. Either that, or you get fired for being obstinate. Paul walked that fine line and I watched in awe.