4 ms·
Who says programmers are the greatest minds of our generation?
by MatthewPhillips 14y ago
Who says programmers are the greatest minds of our generation?
- oh_sigh 14y agoGenerally their bank accounts.
- majormajor 14y agoThere are pretty good ways to make a good deal more money more predictably than working at Google or playing the startup lottery...
- oh_sigh 14y agoI wasn't saying that any given programmer was the best mind of their generation - just that many of the best minds of these recent generations have been programmers, or involved in technology development in some manner. And what are some of the "pretty good ways to make a good deal more money more predictably" that you're referencing?
- comicjk 14y agoUh, finance? Maybe this isn't as obvious to a non-New Yorker, but that seems to me like the easiest way for a smart person to make money.
- analog 14y agoI was thinking 'finance' too. I'll add 'oil industry' to that list as well.
- oh_sigh 14y agoExcept that it isn't at all easy to get into finance, and the profits are not guaranteed in any case, as you seemed to imply.
- polshaw 14y ago>it isn't at all easy to get into finance so.. you are saying you need to.. be one of the best minds?
- rokhayakebe 14y agoBy your definition, those realtors of 2006-2008 were the greatest minds of that period, so were the financial analysts, and the personal wealth managers who had nothing other than a 1 week seminar to certify them as such.
- petercooper 14y agoAnd Fifty Shades of Gray would be the greatest book of the last year ;-)
- majormajor 14y agoThis is a huge part of it. There's a certain arrogance in this tired, oft-repeated claim. And more subtly, people can be great at different things. Tech stuff has always come quite easily to me. Chemistry, biology, or creating social change? Not so much. But my focusing on the stuff I'm good at hasn't stopped other people from doing (what my doctor friends decribe to me as) extremely interesting research in the health area.
- LaGrange 14y agoWell, I upvoted you, because yes, but I'll make a refinement to the question: just replace "greatest minds" with "greatest programmers". Seriously, great programmers are needed in bioinformatics, engineering and infrastructure. Some already are there, but the field is generally unglamorous and you can get much better pay for a job that doesn't involve your deep knowledge of microcontrollers at all. Bah, even if you're a civil engineer starting with just a basic knowledge of programming, unless you get lucky you'll get incentives to switch into developing knock-off websites way too many times. The chance of return on improving your basic programming skill to average is just higher than on improving your decent material engineering skill to superb.
- kami8845 14y agoBecause they make 100k straight out of college.
- bicx 14y agoClearly I'm working for the wrong employer
- noarchy 14y agoIt must be a "Valley" thing (and the associated cost of living), because depend on one's location, 100k would be a good figure for a project manager. Someone straight out of school? Not a chance.
- mmagin 14y agoAnd in the "Valley", with rent and (California income) taxes what they are today, 100k isn't as great as you might think.
- paulgb 14y agoI think there's a certain degree of arrogance to that claim, but a lot of truth. For the smartest minds of our generation, programming is not that hard to pick up. I've seen (classical) engineers and physics PhDs working in ad tech and social games many times.
- dakimov 14y agoWho says web-programmers are programmers?