The reason why you're being so heavily down voted is that your comment adds nothing of value to our understanding of the issue at hand.

It is empirically of no value whether or not this person is "sticking their chest out" over "bettering a few teenagers at a shitty job." What's valuable is understanding that relegating something this crucial to such a position can harm the long term prospects of a company and this article brings that issue to light.

That said, all accomplishments are relative as is the emotional pride someone feels over them. Sebastian Thrun can be bested at even his best by von Neumann at his worst, does that mean Thrun shouldn't take pride in his work? Nope. Life is complicated. Feel happy about what you can and let the rest be.

You mock (what you perceive to be) a display of arrogance by an astounding display of arrogance.

He was actually polite about the people he worked with an identified the issue as been at a more senior level, the guy also has the experience to back up his claims.

Now I could say "I suggest you wind your neck in a little and take pause for a little perspective" but then I'd be the condescending douche.

Also that there are people making self-driving cars and lasers that can shoot mortars out the sky devalues other peoples work not at all, indeed I suspect the mortar shooting out the sky laser is rigorously tested by Q&A.

Your first comment drew me a picture and your second colored it in :).

I agree with this, in the sense that he is obviously on one end of a major chasm between his own perception of his value and the market's. I say "market" because he quickly glossed-over the fact that he took the job reluctantly because he couldn't find any other work.

The simple answer is to run your own finances like a business. Know what you need to earn to be profitable to your level of satisfaction and turn down offers that don't meet that requirement. I've been in manys a job interview when the inevitable awkward question about salary expectations arose and I simply put out my number and didn't hear from them again. Fine, they made their decision on my value and I made mine and I move along without wasting anybody's time. I didn't blast the other employees at the companies or proclaim myself as an expert in the field.

I would say stop taking things so personally and if the company isn't willing to pay what you believe yourself to be worth, find one that will.

Forget lasers. There are people that can shoot a mortar out of the sky with bullets. ...And you have no idea why that is so much more difficult than lasers, do you, kid?

I read it more as a "look how stupid this company is" piece, rather than a "look how smart I am" boast. If he were really smart, he would have kept his flappy mouth shut at $9/hour, then offered to consult for the company about their quality assurance efficiency at ten times the hourly rate after quitting.

A business so clueless as to cheap out on quality control probably values advice by how much they had to pay for it.

And if he were really smart and evil, he would have used his skill to sell all bugs found beyond his quota to the other "testers". If all it takes to not be fired is to find one new bug every two hours, you find maybe six for yourself in the morning, and sell the rest at $10 each just before the management metrics get compiled.

I think the point here is that individuals with necessary experience have a higher economic efficiency.

The obvious choice is to hire one 18 dollar an hour tester and 4 9 dollar an hour testers. After a training period (probably < a month), you'll have 2 quitters and 3 good testers at 2/3rds the price.