Characters
++++++++++

Mark
====

Mark can make you trust him.

At least a few times.

And then it stops working.

Me
==

At the start:

My wife was out of my league and deserves more than what I can provide.

I'm barely a decent programmer, and I need to catch up

I can't really make anything of substance. I'm not good enough.

End:

Everything anybody makes is pretty close to garbage.

Done beats perfect.

Fortune favors the brave. 

In the end, however, what really matters is the ripple effects we have
on other people.

Gene
====

A genius in his own mind.  If everyone would just do what he says, it
would all turn out fine.

If something goes wrong, it's somebody else's fault, or, it's not that
important.


Timmy
=====

A small town kid with the same obsessiveness as me.  At the beginning he
doubts himself too much.

Still pretends to be Christian when his parents are around.

Flirts with women but doesn't actually cheat on his wife when we travel.

In the end, picks allying with Mark rather than continuing my tradition
of being the scapegoat for the rest of the dev team.

My Wife
=======

All the things I needed her to say were the kinds of things she was too
proud to say.

She wanted me to live up to a role that was never really going to fit
my comfortably.

Nicole
======

She didn't love me, but she knew how to make me feel loved