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The same is often said of literature, cinema, healthcare, childcare, tourism, and just about everything. Heck, this was a criticism of the Sophists in Ancient G
by blowski 10y ago
The same is often said of literature, cinema, healthcare, childcare, tourism, and just about everything. Heck, this was a criticism of the Sophists in Ancient Greece!
- bitL 10y agoYes, this seems to be tragedy of human nature where the lowest character traits shape the society, not the highest. Now it's happening in tech and happening faster than ever before.
- uryga 10y agoi think blowskis point was, people have been saying the same thing for 2000 years[1], so it's hard to take it seriously :) The example of sofists is supposed to be absurd - i dont think anyone today believes those ancient philosophers were just in it for the money/power. [1] see https://xkcd.com/1227/ https://xkcd.com/1227/ for a similar example.
- blowski 10y agoThat's an oversimplification. For good or ill, greed drives innovation and expands access to these services, while "retaining authenticity" is often a cover for "retaining exclusivity". We shouldn't be too quick to label traits as 'high' and 'low'.
- TeMPOraL 10y agoWhether it was said or not, I lived through it, so I have first-hand experience that tells me there was a shift. It used to be that programming was an unpopular hobby of unpopular people (nerds!). Now not just IT, but the whole geek/nerd culture got commercialized, to the point that today's programmers are nothing like the ones from 10+ years ago. Today if you pick a random developer in a random company, you'll most likely find someone with only shallow knowledge/understanding of programming, who is in this career just for the money, and only cares about the craft between 9 AM and 5 PM. It does feel like the culture I grew up in was invaded and taken over by barbarians.
- noir_lord 10y agoTo an extent that was always going to happen as the field expanded, if you look at any established field (medicine, law, engineering) you have people who are insanely passionate about the field for the field and people who realised it would provide a good standard of living. I don't think this is a bad thing necessarily, the overall expansion of numbers has also radically increased the number of people doing interesting things as well, you just have to find them and they are everywhere, there are still programmers doing things for the passion of doing them.
- mhurron 10y agoHow do those that are interested in just doing a job affect you at all? Are you upset that you can't say you're a programmer and hold it as a badge of honour that you're not one of 'them?'
- TeMPOraL 10y agoI got used to it so it doesn't upset me at all. The thing that affected me was that when I came to the workplace, I expected to meet more people "of my kind". Instead, I've met the same normal people who laugh at you for programming after work or having scientific interests (i.e. "having no life"). Adults are more polite about it, though.
- blowski 10y agoI agree that it probably has happened, but it probably happens to every single hobby, artform or profession. If it's worth money, then mercenaries will be attracted to it.