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I'm sure that we haven't found the limit yet. Usually this kind of discussion turns to supply-and-demand economics and somebody says that if you want to hire so
by cwp 4y ago
I'm sure that we haven't found the limit yet. Usually this kind of discussion turns to supply-and-demand economics and somebody says that if you want to hire software engineers you just have to offer more. That's not wrong, but it too narrow a view. A free labour market ensures that skilled people get allocated to the highest value work, which is a great outcome for everyone. But there are so many projects that never happen at all because software engineers are so scarce. The cost of a software project is not just paying the engineers to do the work, it also has to get over the hurdle of finding, evaluating and enticing them to join the project in the first place.
- nix0n 4y ago> I'm sure that we haven't found the limit yet. I agree with that. > A free labour market ensures that skilled people get allocated to the highest value work, which is a great outcome for everyone. Value in terms of dollars is not really correlated with productive value to society. I think a lot of the software that's being built, shouldn't be built.
- cwp 4y ago> Value in terms of dollars is not really correlated with productive value to society. No correlation? No, I don't think that's true. Sure, there are externalities, but if something truly isn't valuable, you can't make money from it. Also, what do you think shouldn't be built? I have a hard time coming up with "a lot" of software that has zero or negative value. Sometimes a startup will build something that doesn't end up being valuable, but it was at least potentially valuable, or it wouldn't have been funded.