While I was still half asleep, listening to the morning news on the radio, a story about Dan Marino retiring from football morphed in my head into the scary concept of software engineers getting recruited out of college to work in big league startups, working long hours and making millions on stock options, but burning out a few years later with strained wrists and poor vision, and retiring in the prime of their lives. So what if engineers were treated like football or baseball players? Some would be free agents, shopping themselves around to the most alluring companies. Others would be working their way up in the minors, trying to get noticed each year at training camp where they would show off their command of design patterns and the latest web technologies. Then there would be those chained to their companies via stock vesting plans that read just like contracts. But I guess programming isn’t a spectator sport. Surely someone would pay me to endorse their caffeinated beverage or Java debugger. Too bad we don’t get an off season and have a pro bowl in Hawaii every year.