the fate of a small developer in a large company, or whether it is necessary to deal with windmills

First an optional preface. For this topic I received an invite to the Habr (thanks ecl ). I did not intend to publish it, but yesterday the story received an unexpected continuation, so I could not resist.
The tale is simple.

I started working in a small office (15-20 people), which was the only point in the development of one small Canadian company. There I learned what XP, Scrum, independent decision making and freedom in general are. Well then I didn’t understand this, I thought Scrum was bullshit, and for the rest - I thought so everywhere.
After working a year and a half for a student sn, I decided that I was worth more.

Easily got into a large office, which was one of the many points of development of a huge western
company.
The payment system in this office deserves special mention: you sit, doing nothing (without a project) - get sn. In the project - also get a bonus (once a quarter - another salary).
If you don’t participate in the project, you want to - pick your nose, want to participate in the development of the internal intranet.

I was in the first days of this gov intranet. In my inexperienced view, the system was designed crookedly, implemented accordingly, only worse. I went to the person who was responsible for “this”.

- Why so? So conceived? I asked.
-No - they say, just like that, an imperfection.
“Why so?” - the answer is the same
, etc.
-And why the project under CVS, but not under SVN, say? After all, CVS is the day before yesterday!
-Admins cannot configure the SVN repository in any way. (the project has already been going on for 1.5 years)

The next shock was waiting for me in the project.
Bureaucracy ...
I could stupidly sit for a week without work, since on the side of the parent company I had not been given any account for a week. And nobody cared. Neither customers, nor my manager.
The project, designed for 3 months, coordinated changed its tasks a month before the end - and everyone ran in like sweaty mice.
- Well, pee at all! I thought.
As a result, at the end of the project, a donut without a hole was obtained, and we received a prize !!!
Well, I thought, maybe an exception.

And he stayed without a project for 4 months.

So how to get involved in govI really did not want to develop an intranet, then I went on top managers.
Let’s say I’ll make such an internal project, we have 10 people sitting without a project. Interesting new technologies - not EJB2, but RESTful, JavaFX, Groovy. They say to me:
- Dude, you're cool, come on!
But then another blow awaited me - none of the 10 people wanted to do something. Here is an approximate conversation with each of them:

- Why? Will I get a bonus?
- Not.
-And the point?
-Prof growth.
-Not, thanks, I will wait for the project.

The bosses, learning about this, only shrugged:
- Dude, you're cool.
and continued to engage in their archival affairs.

And I started my project alone.
A month later, I got one person in the project. in another week - two ...
... and then they took me into the project. and the internal project was bent at once, both assistants returned to doing nothing.

Why am I all this?
Take the abstract average programmer.
Here everyone says - he must first of all enjoy his work, money - they are the second most motivated.
And what happens? - he is pleased. The project is interesting - good. not interesting - nothing. no project is normal. They pay money.
Those. Dear Habra users, when they talk about motivation, they talk about their own motivation, and not the average programmer, say.
And he wants money.
And stability.
And stability in the first place, even if it is stability with little money. the average programmer will not go to another office if they offer him 20% more zp. and all the more it won’t go to the same or lower salary, but to an interesting job.
And will remain the average programmer.
But with a great desire it can be brought up. own example. Whether it's worth it is another question.

I want to note that I am not trying to convey the idea: "all people are like people, and I am Jimmy Hendrix." I still work in this office. and you know why?
Because it is a swamp - addictive.
Because it’s better than without a job, the realities are completely different than a year ago, and it’s not so easy for a young programmer to find a job.

I am eager to understand the average programmer, because understanding it will, I feel, be very useful to me in the future, as I hope for you ...
But they are different.

PS How it all ended - I’ll write in a week, I won’t say “gop” until I jump over.