If programmers are in short supply become one and make tons of money. If they are over-supplied become an entrepreneur, hire lots of cheap programmers and change the world. Think positively.
My thoughts exactly :)
Programmers becoming "starving artists"
21–30 of 37 posts
Re: Programmers becoming "starving artists"
#22"Now computer literacy is widespread enough, and basic programming tools have gotten easy enough to use, that the ability "to write a program" is no longer in short supply, and with the Internet at our fingertips we all have the combined output of the whole world's supply of programming talent available to us, not just programmers in our own city, state or country." Methinks that the author doesn't understand the dif…
Yes, computers are more widespread these days, but I don't see the amount of kids being interested in programming change anytime soon. When I was a kid in the 80s, not everyone in my class or school had access to a computer, but some did. Of those, not everyone cared to learn how to program, only a few did.
Today, everyone has access to computers, and the programming tools are better and more varied, but I still think that most kids actually thinks it's boring as hell to learn how to program, there's still only a small amount of people who have a passion for it, and the focus and aptitude needed to become good at it.
Re: Programmers becoming "starving artists"
#23If the demand for programmers keeps growing, no one needs to starve.
For most of its life, computer adoption has been growing exponentially - each time they got cheaper, more businesses could afford them. This meant a constantly growing demand for programmers, and therefore higher wages. Eventually, every business that wants a computer will have one, and then demand will stabilize to grow at the rate of population growth - bye-bye supernormal profits for programmers. I saw a fascinating presentation that claimed that this happened at around the year 2000.
Of course, now computer adoption is greater than 1 per capita, with it being common to have at least two of a desktop, a laptop, an iPhone and a gaming console - and greater demand for software. Also, some consolidation of software would have seemed likely (and that happened within the categories of e.g. word-processors and OSes) - yet, the number of categories themselves seems to have grown, with a webapp for every occasion, and even add-ons to websites like facebook etc.
So maybe the exponential growth in demand will continue.
I like to think that software embodies knowledge, and like knowledge, is therefore be limitless - it's just that that hasn't been the driver of industry so far
Re: Programmers becoming "starving artists"
#24Nonsense. Programmers aren't artists, they're engineers. The difference is progress. Whereas art hasn't come a long way since Rembrandt and Mozart, engineering has. Open Source is just the stuff that's easy and has already been done. Progress won't happen if everyone has to develop it over and over again or spend millions on licenses for trivial products.
(Note: Article is from 2003, bottom of IT crisis)
Re: Programmers becoming "starving artists"
#25I already see it when trying to hire programmers and designers.
Because a programmer knows a mish-mash of PHP, Java and a little Javascript, they think that they are immediately qualified to write a scaleable web app.
Designers are even worse. Just because they know photoshop or dreamweaver, they think they are a designer.
I find that my programming candidates from the open-source world, though, tend to be better then those using the latest and greatest editor with some kind of intellisense on Windows.
Re: Programmers becoming "starving artists"
#26If programmers are in short supply become one and make tons of money. If they are over-supplied become an entrepreneur, hire lots of cheap programmers and change the world. Think positively.
Only thing is cheap programmers generally -- not exclusively -- but generally suck.
Re: Programmers becoming "starving artists"
#27Among the many erroneous assumptions this makes is that the demand for software is not elastic or limited by the cost of development. In reality what would happen is that if code becomes cheaper companies will get more than they could before to automate increasingly larger aspects of their infrastructure, improve the quality of their current software, and make custom software more accesible to small businesses. As th…
> ... custom software is more than 90% of all software out there.
I've read this in several variations for years. But I've never seen a reference.
Is this just a myth or can anyone point to real research which provides evidence for the claim?
Re: Programmers becoming "starving artists"
#28If programmers are in short supply become one and make tons of money. If they are over-supplied become an entrepreneur, hire lots of cheap programmers and change the world. Think positively.
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Re: Programmers becoming "starving artists"
#29Starving artist is not a good analogy. Software is a trade that provides economic benefit to the recipient, rather than purely entertainment. Better analogies would be to an architect, general contractor, plumber, or mechanic. Anyone can do these jobs with proper training. They don't live off repeated sales of single pieces of intellectual property. And they all make reliable livings (though few of them become millio…
Entertainment isn't an economic benefit?
Re: Programmers becoming "starving artists"
#30Starving artist is not a good analogy. Software is a trade that provides economic benefit to the recipient, rather than purely entertainment. Better analogies would be to an architect, general contractor, plumber, or mechanic. Anyone can do these jobs with proper training. They don't live off repeated sales of single pieces of intellectual property. And they all make reliable livings (though few of them become millio…
I think the tradesman analogy is good, but the future programming career may have elements of the starving artist in it as well. Working for free to build a portfolio is a feature typical of creative trades that would be foreign to an architect or plumber.
Well, I don't know about plumbers, but architects know all about working for free to build a portfolio... For example, if an architect wants to do something a bit more challenging than yet another McMansion, they are going to have to enter competitions where only the winner gets paid. They do it anyhow, because placing well in a competition also helps to build your reputation as a designer.