How many nights had I been the last one to turn off the lights in the office? How many weekends had I spent in the server room debugging alone? How many breakthroughs had I led the team through, grinding through the hardest technical challenges?
And this drone program, which won international awards and sold for hundreds of millions—its architecture, its original concept, its most difficult flight control algorithms and path planning systems—every line of core logic bore my sweat and sleepless nights.
Then last month, my mother fell critically ill and was hospitalized.
By that point, the main development phase was complete; what remained was tedious but low-complexity finishing work.
I was stretched thin, torn between work and family. I had no choice but to delegate.
That was when Lester—the diligent, mild-mannered intern—approached me, saying he was willing to help out so I could focus on my mother.
I was genuinely grateful. I gave him the repetitive, low-skill tasks: unit testing, interface debugging, coding and commenting on non-core modules, organizing documentation, and the like.
I even praised him publicly in a department meeting for being proactive and responsible.