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Twitter, but without code

notrealtwitter.com

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Re: Twitter, but without code

#61

Post by blixt »

srmann wrote: post #59

The idea of lowering the learning curve for website development has fascinated me for the past 10-ish years during my employment in the content management system industry. Every once in a while the idea that a tool can replace a developer surfaces, energizes a few people, and then falls flat for one reason or another. Yet it always resurfaces, likely due to the revolutionary nature of a successful solution. The most…

I agree with you mostly, but let's also consider the value of lowering the bar of entry. Once upon a time "software engineer" meant someone punching cards and running them through one out of a handful machines on Earth to execute a piece of logic. In 10 years from now "software engineer" might mean someone who practically draws something on a touchable, wireless surface that weighs less than a couple of those punch cards that used to hold a single logical instruction, and their software is instantly available to billions of people.

Or to translate to your analogy: there might have been a lot of brilliant writers in the world that simply never learned how to write, or they never had access to distribution so the only person who read their masterpiece was themselves. Today, with the Internet and computers and better access to schools, we have a lot more writers. There might also be more lower quality content because the bar of entry has been lowered, but I'm absolutely sure there will be a lot more high quality content as well.

Re: Twitter, but without code

#62

Post by ksherlock »

mahouse wrote: post #48

>Because in 2020 most programmers won't be engineers. They will be doctors, teachers, farmers, executives... I do not like this narrative at all, and it's becoming pretty common. Do you imagine a doctor saying "Don't worry, in 2020 most physicians won't be doctors, they will be engineers, teachers, farmers, executives"?

Do you call a carpenter every time you want to put a nail in the wall to hang a picture? Do you call a doctor to put Neosporin and a band aid on your boo-boo? Do you call an accountant to calculate tips?

Re: Twitter, but without code

#64

Post by TTPrograms »

ksherlock wrote: post #62
mahouse wrote: post #48

>Because in 2020 most programmers won't be engineers. They will be doctors, teachers, farmers, executives... I do not like this narrative at all, and it's becoming pretty common. Do you imagine a doctor saying "Don't worry, in 2020 most physicians won't be doctors, they will be engineers, teachers, farmers, executives"?

Do you call a carpenter every time you want to put a nail in the wall to hang a picture? Do you call a doctor to put Neosporin and a band aid on your boo-boo? Do you call an accountant to calculate tips?

Would you then call yourself a nail-hammerer, or are you just somebody who occasionally sloppily hammers a nail or two?

Re: Twitter, but without code

#65

Post by randomdata »

mahouse wrote: post #48

>Because in 2020 most programmers won't be engineers. They will be doctors, teachers, farmers, executives... I do not like this narrative at all, and it's becoming pretty common. Do you imagine a doctor saying "Don't worry, in 2020 most physicians won't be doctors, they will be engineers, teachers, farmers, executives"?

The difference is in the employment structure:

    * The majority of doctors are self-employed
    * Farmers are, by definition, owners of the business
    * Executives tend to be large stakeholders in the companies they manage
Institutional school teachers tend to be employees, although I'm not sure about all teachers. However, I did have at least one high school teacher (from years ago) tell us that in the future people would learn on demand over the internet, which is coming true, and largely being provided by people who do not have teaching backgrounds.

I expect programmers also tend towards being employees, and thus there is a strong interest to automate/eliminate that work.

Re: Twitter, but without code

#67

Post by Koldark »

If in 2020, all those people are programmers, we are going to have some shitty software! If the people I worked with wrote software, they might fix their own itch and not think about the bigger picture nor the others in the organization.
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