Wow, Piers Anthony is a pretty deep cut, and that makes me think of my teenage years as well...

I think this is an excellent description of the mutual "feeling out" period that occurs when you start somewhere as a programmer or when a new programmer starts on your team. "Am I going to learn from this person?" "Am I going to be annoyed by this person?" "Will I become friends with this person?"

That's probably universally applicable, but it seems much more visceral in a line of work where you're going to be collaborating on creating and building things. Many artists and other types of creators are fiercely independent and can be -- we are, but are generally forced to collaborate. Hence, the friction.

Great post.