Hi Ishita,
Thats a very interesting question! I have certainly met people like your subordinate, who program because they have to, rather than because they want to. However, I don't believe that he doesn't have any opportunities to work on new projects. A person who truly enjoys their job will make new projects, whether its for a company or in their spare time.
But its a frustrating scenario, because I have felt that the more I learned about the language, the more I enjoyed working with it and applying that knowledge. I have often wondered if those types of people would follow the same path if they only learned more. But the more I think about it, I didn't learn more because I was forced to, I learned more because I wanted to. If they don't want to learn, there is not much you can for them.
On the other hand, it could just be that he is bored and that solving random exercises doesn't interest him. It would be an interesting
test to see if he could write code that would solve or lessen some of the work he is doing. For instance, a program to automatically test something that he tests manually, so he at least feels some utility to these things he is writing. I obviously don't know much about his day to day work, but I can tell if he copy/pastes the answers to your problems, he at least enjoys solving problems in the laziest way possible haha. Maybe you can find a way to put that to use!
