🚀 go-pugleaf

tom_overton_1968@yahoo.com (Tom_O) wrote:

>You can't make an "innovation vs. programming" argument.  That's
>stupid.  Programmers are not analogous to factory workers assembling a
>set of components for an automobile.  When it comes to software,
>programmers *are* the innovators.

That's a pretty broad use of the term "programmer." Today, most
programming is no more skilled than word processing; a programmer is
handed a spec sheet and a prototype of the interface, and he (almost
always a he) just sits down and churns out the code like an assembly
line worker.

>We just sit down and "churn out" code like an assembly line worker,

Yes, precisely. I mean, if you're talking system programming under Unix,
that's different, but even a retarded chimpanzee can learn VBNet.

>When we ship programming jobs overseas we are not just losing "jobs",
>we are losing "professions".

Yes, as time goes by, professions change. Once upon a time, there was no
such thing as an IT worker, but shoemaker was a profession handed down
from father to son.

>about "comparative advantage".  Well, an American programmer whos
>personal "comparative advantage" is programming is now being forced to
>change occupations to something he or she isn't optimal at

Nah... comparative advantage is a macroeconomic term. It does not apply
to individuals. In macroeconomics, it's the aggregate that counts.

>Indians who otherwise would never even care about being a programmer
>are busy writing code because it's the only high-paying career they
>have a choice of doing.  Now tell me where the efficiency is?

A great part of the reason why there is a surplus of IT labor is that
thousands of people entered the profession during the 90s, when the
getting was good. The majority of those people were just going for the
money, and had little aptitude much less passion for the profession.
After a couple of community college courses in Java or VB, they called
themselves programmers.