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Yes and no. Being a computer programmer covers a wide range of skills and roles. It's like construction. There's a huge range. Some people cut and nail up dry
by Foober223 6y ago
Yes and no. Being a computer programmer covers a wide range of skills and roles. It's like construction. There's a huge range. Some people cut and nail up dry wall. They do their work without having to invent things, using skills that can be executed rote. Other builders have to design a custom bridge for a unique mountain range that must handle stress not normally found in cookie cutter bridge designs.
A big part of the market is making CRUD apps. The skills to develop these kinds of apps can be reliably learned. But even still, it's not quite as rote a skill as being a cog on an assembly line. There's still a lot of variability, and lots of parts to master (front end, databases, etc), interpretation of requirements. It's hard to just hire an army of peons and expect them to participate in CRUD.
If the development is exploring out new territory, then the workers will never be a commodity. Making new things never done before. Facial recognition, OCR with high reliability for crumby hand writing, etc. For these workers to be a commodity, you will have to create an AI with human level creativity to do exploratory creation. That will likely not happen in our great great great grand children's lifetimes.
- SanchoPanda 6y agoOne machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man. Elbert Hubbard
- paulcole 6y ago> Other builders have to design a custom bridge for a unique mountain range that must handle stress not normally found in cookie cutter bridge designs. Aren’t you confusing builders and engineers?
- Foober223 6y agoNo, that's actually the point of the post. That programmers, developers, or what have you are all clumped together. When in reality there are many distinct kinds of programmers with different skills, just like in the world of physical structures. The term "computer programmer" gets assigned to everyone who makes software. Some programmers invent little like a dry wall worker. All average people could become this kind of programmer. Other programmers invent with skills out of reach of most common people.
- paulcole 6y agoActually I don’t think it is. Nobody thinks the guy that installs my fence designed the Golden Gate Bridge.
- Foober223 6y agoIt seems you are arguing agianst a point that you are trying to make yourself.
- paulcole 6y ago> Other builders have to design a custom bridge for a unique mountain range These are not builders and nobody would ever call them builders. Well one person would, I guess.
- jarjarbinks455 6y agoTo me it is clear he is saying dry wall work and bridge design are separate skill sets. Contrasting that with the general term "developers" where different skill sets fall under one umbrella term.