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This is only true for people who thoroughly understand what they are buying. This is very rarely the case for people hiring programmers. The only people who are

by gizi 11y ago

This is only true for people who thoroughly understand what they are buying. This is very rarely the case for people hiring programmers. The only people who are capable of hiring programmers are other programmers (and often not even then). Everybody else is totally incapable of hiring programmers or distinguishing between incompetent, lousy, mediocre, or possibly good candidates. That is why the boss of a technology company (Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Oracle) has to be a programmer, or else sooner or later, the technology firm will crash and burn.

JoeAltmaier 11y ago
Even when developers are included in the decision, any decision other than 'use outsourcing' is met with "But, $10/hr!" by management and game over. Been there; had that done to me.
- gizi 11y ago
  Either the management are programmers themselves (Bill Gates, Sergey Brin, Mark Zuckerberg, ...) or else the company is a lost cause. They will simply get expelled out of the market by companies -- who take no prisoners -- of which the management are programmers. Only a programmer can create half a trillion dollars of value (Google Search). Nobody else can do that. Their output is too inferior for that.
  - Retric 11y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Borlaug https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Borlaug "The Man Who Saved A Billion Lives" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Borlaug#/media/File:Wheat_yields_in_selected_countries,_1951-2004.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Borlaug#/media/File:Whe... Granted, not exactly the work of one person, but neither is Google search. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Jenner https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Jenner is probably the highest gains from any one person. Though there was a lot of prior work in the field.
  - josephjrobison 11y ago
    If I've only had self-taught exposure to programming and can do like PHP/WordPress and a bit of rails, but am more of a marketing business person, if 5-10 years down the road I want to start a software company and don't want to be taken advantage of would you absolutely recommend becoming proficient in a language to have cursory knowledge, or for your examples above would the management/CEO have to be a full-time extremely proficient programmer?

by gizi 11y ago

JoeAltmaier 11y ago

Even when developers are included in the decision, any decision other than 'use outsourcing' is met with "But, $10/hr!" by management and game over. Been there; had that done to me.

gizi 11y ago
Either the management are programmers themselves (Bill Gates, Sergey Brin, Mark Zuckerberg, ...) or else the company is a lost cause. They will simply get expelled out of the market by companies -- who take no prisoners -- of which the management are programmers. Only a programmer can create half a trillion dollars of value (Google Search). Nobody else can do that. Their output is too inferior for that.
- Retric 11y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Borlaug https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Borlaug "The Man Who Saved A Billion Lives" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Borlaug#/media/File:Wheat_yields_in_selected_countries,_1951-2004.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Borlaug#/media/File:Whe... Granted, not exactly the work of one person, but neither is Google search. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Jenner https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Jenner is probably the highest gains from any one person. Though there was a lot of prior work in the field.
- josephjrobison 11y ago
  If I've only had self-taught exposure to programming and can do like PHP/WordPress and a bit of rails, but am more of a marketing business person, if 5-10 years down the road I want to start a software company and don't want to be taken advantage of would you absolutely recommend becoming proficient in a language to have cursory knowledge, or for your examples above would the management/CEO have to be a full-time extremely proficient programmer?