I guess if you tell a room full of engineers that engineering is no longer where it's at, you won't get a lot of applause. The author never said that there won

I guess if you tell a room full of engineers that engineering is no longer where it's at, you won't get a lot of applause. The author never said that there won't be a need for engineering talent. Of course there will. It's just that engineering isn't the edge anymore. The difference between Apple ten years ago and Apple today isn't better engineering. The difference between Apple and Nokia or Twitter and Buzz isn't engineering. Actually, I think this is what Google+ is about. Google has always had great engineering, but they haven't paid much attention to user experience. Google+ comes out of the recognition that the internet is actually a means for people to connect with other people. So if you're going to focus on that instead of "organizing the world's information," user experience comes to the fore. Sure, the engineering is there, but it's not enough. And sure enough, Google has put a lot of effort into UX in Google+ - everything from interface design to feature selection to rollout strategy. Contrast that with Wave, which was a marvel of engineering, but didn't have a clear purpose.