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Articles like these really ignore the true problem with jobs and technical fields. Most individuals who have to have factory worker jobs are not the same indivi

Articles like these really ignore the true problem with jobs and technical fields. Most individuals who have to have factory worker jobs are not the same individuals who can spend years learning a highly technical and competative proffession. Programming is not something you just 'go to school' for, and even if it was, college is very difficult by itself for many, especially if you have kids. The mindset you have to have to partake in something like engineering, in any form, is years upon years of effort. For younger individuals, this can still be possible, but our education system is far too broken for that to work out for the individuals it should. I don't think "everybody should program" is a realistic goal. Companies are not willing to invest in individuals to 'learn', because they don't have to. There's so many already that they can pick and choose individuals who already know how to solve the problem they have, even if sometimes that person lies and then somehow turns out a decent output. The time when places like Google or Microsoft hire people to 'figure out' how to do something is when they require extremely advanced skills, skills that by their nature maybe only a few hundred, or dozen, in the world have.

segmondy 10y ago
Oh stop it, we love to think of ourselves as special. Programming is simple, so simple factory workers can do it. With the right training, it's not complicated, I'm talking about the type of programming that happens in most places too, it's nothing more but digital factories, CRUD, gluing together framework, libraries, the DB, a queue, email, config files, very few original code. Very few people implement amazing novel algorithms & data structures in new projects.
- devwastaken 10y ago
  >Programming is simple, so simple factory workers can do it. Its simple when another programmer creates pre-packaged tools that are meant for pre-designed purposes. Even with that, its rarely done right. Its not ourselves that are special, but software is very, very complicated. All attempts to make it not complicated are designed for particular purposes that gradient to more specificity the easier they get. Creating software for others with a particular purpose without introducing the theory behind it all is expensive and difficult, and in many cases does not work. Thats all assuming you need that many programmers (we don't). Programming is completely trended towards automation, much more so than robots. That automation requires a significantly high level of knowledge, and when known can create many more systems than any beginner can. Websites are only a very small part of software, and even that is trended heavily towards automated sites like Wix or SquareSpace.
- paulddraper 10y ago
  While I think we're very far from "special", we are special in that we're good at programming. Being (humbly speaking of course) very good at math, and a math tutor and TA, it took a while before I realized that lots of people just don't "get it". With effort and time they can manage, but math will just never be comfortable or intuitive for them. Some people get music and rhythm and melody. I just don't. I can tell you a lot about music theory, but I can't string notes in a good sounding way to save my life.

segmondy 10y ago

Oh stop it, we love to think of ourselves as special. Programming is simple, so simple factory workers can do it. With the right training, it's not complicated, I'm talking about the type of programming that happens in most places too, it's nothing more but digital factories, CRUD, gluing together framework, libraries, the DB, a queue, email, config files, very few original code. Very few people implement amazing novel algorithms & data structures in new projects.

devwastaken 10y ago
>Programming is simple, so simple factory workers can do it. Its simple when another programmer creates pre-packaged tools that are meant for pre-designed purposes. Even with that, its rarely done right. Its not ourselves that are special, but software is very, very complicated. All attempts to make it not complicated are designed for particular purposes that gradient to more specificity the easier they get. Creating software for others with a particular purpose without introducing the theory behind it all is expensive and difficult, and in many cases does not work. Thats all assuming you need that many programmers (we don't). Programming is completely trended towards automation, much more so than robots. That automation requires a significantly high level of knowledge, and when known can create many more systems than any beginner can. Websites are only a very small part of software, and even that is trended heavily towards automated sites like Wix or SquareSpace.
paulddraper 10y ago
While I think we're very far from "special", we are special in that we're good at programming. Being (humbly speaking of course) very good at math, and a math tutor and TA, it took a while before I realized that lots of people just don't "get it". With effort and time they can manage, but math will just never be comfortable or intuitive for them. Some people get music and rhythm and melody. I just don't. I can tell you a lot about music theory, but I can't string notes in a good sounding way to save my life.