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Maybe it's because you come off as a pompous prick? Instead of acting like a know it all you should perhaps come at the situation from a more diplomatic perspective.

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Yeah, don't down vote this, it's valid. All I can say is I've been hyper aware of this, I've really tried to not be pompous or condescending. It's always, ok, this again, let's try the Socratic method this time. Or, ok, this time I'll cite the documentation. But yeah, like others have said, I don't try anymore. Unless it directly impacts what I'm working on. Then I'm just a dick, or move on.

Oh god, I've been there too. It's like watching code cancer develop and I'm helpless to stop it. Maybe if they can name an anti-pattern for this that can be readily referred to. I usually try to refer people to Clean Code by Robert C. Martin. But everyone presupposes they are smarter than me and old guys like him and smarter than the people who already wrote and tested and attained widespread adoptance (word?) of whatever library or framework already does this stuff he's re-writing. I've come to believe its an attempt to establish job security by writing vast tangles of custom code all their own. Trouble is when you have non technical managers who see him churning away - checking in loads of code and spending hours 'fixing' bugs (he introduced himself) so on paper he comes out looking way more 'productive' than others - so he becomes a darling.

This is to GP's point: you're not perceived as trying to help, you're perceived as being a pompous ass. As they say, no good deed goes unpunished.

This is why I just leave places that have this type of shit going on, you can't help and people will not listen. You can actively harm your career/reputation if you try. Just go somewhere better.

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