“He was stringing these computer terms together in ways that made no sense. He didn’t seem to know anything about high-frequency trading or source code.”
Programming is esoteric to common folk. Almost like witchcraft. When things go wrong for villagers, they often burn witches.
They didn't burn witches in the old days because of some moral failing that we've outgrown. They burned them because they were unable to understand that "witches" didn't actually cause plagues.