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Ayn Rand had it right. Anyone who tries to rise above the mediocrity of the masses must be destroyed. But, take their cool inventions first.
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Wow ... you have summed up EXACTLY what I was thinking.
wahoo
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<< And you can probably imagine what career day at my kids’ school is like.>>
LOL!!
I completely agree with everything you wrote, and have experienced similar.
I was with a Big Client for over 5 years. For the first 4 years the management was very technically knowledgeable and competent. They loved my work and I liked not having to explain anything to them in simplistic terms. Then Big Client was purchased by a competitor who installed their own management. The new management "gang" was NOT AT ALL technically literate. They liked me, but they didn't like my hourly rate. After a year they replaced me with 4 guys from a 3rd world country who were commissioned to replace the system I had built (nothing was wrong with it, mind you, and everything was right with it as well, and it was thoroughly documented, extensible, etc). Anyway, sevaral months after the replacement project was under way (but before I left), the replacement project started to lag WAY behind schedule. So the new management brought in an additional 4 guys from the 3rd world country - all on the minimum wage H1-B visa (or so I was told). Now they had 8 guys for the price of two of me (looks great on paper - eh?). Before I left, I saw proposals for the replacement system. I went to management and told them the proposal was architectually flawed, and wouldn't be able to be fixed if built as designed. They dismissed my concerns outright as "sour grapes" rather than attempting to listen to the merits of what I had to say. Fast-forward 3 years: Big Client blew more than 8 million dollars on the replacement system. They even hired Big Consulting Firm to come in and save the project. But the replacement system NEVER went into production and was 'canned because it couldn't be fixed (for the exact architectuaral flaws I pointed out on my way out the door a couple of years before). The system I built was never unplugged and last I heard is still in production, humming along just fine. Oh, and nobody was fired or even reprimanded for this 8+million dollar debacle.
I love what I do and am proud of the work I do, but I'm not proud of my profession. I hesitate to tell new acquaintances what I do for a living... because so many programmers and IT people in general are so incredibly incompetent while simultaneously being arrogant. Bizarre, but true.
My brother is a fire fighter and paramedic. He saves lives for a living. Now that's a profession worthy of being proud of.
-Jeff
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That's a great story. Too bad it won't be printed on the textbooks for software management. I think people writing such books came up with the idea of replacing one good software engineer with 8 bad ones for the price of two good ones.
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CurtD, I remain in complete agreement. I attend meetings wherein my profession is mitigated with terms as "don't talk techie", "no one wants that geek speak" and "we don't want you heads-down programmers".
Often I reflect, within, the reactions were I to mitigate their professions with: "I might create this application faster were it not for your accountant bean-counting and your sales babble." The vehement reactions would be priceless; however, all is justified as they ridicule my vocation.
Perhaps worse upon returning home from work, I encounter blog entries in which professional coders lament that "programming is too hard", that programming should be not more than snapping Lego pieces together so that we all might attend to the real work of close interaction with our fellow co-workers in a pair-programming nightmare since none of us is as important as all of us.
Programming should be hard; algorithms should be challenging. Intelligence is requisite to master a few dozen languages, web concepts and architecture with creativity and innovation. If coding is too difficult and one misses collective fellowship with many co-workers, I hope the door to this profession does not hit him too hard on his way out.
At least in my profession, I am the lead architect (and I code); so, I have the opportunities to promote individual achievement, not group-think. I permit other programmers to be "heads-down" since coding is an introvert's profession. I promote coders think of themselves as the intelligentsia, not the ridiculed geeks.
Of course you realize that the mention of Ayn Rand will send others into collectivist derangement. I have Ayn Rand posters in my office and a few in the office are driven to speaking in tongues.
L. Nicholas DL
-- modified at 0:12 Friday 30th November, 2007
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Yes. You made me sad as well while reading your post, but you are 100% right.
Dejan
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More than once experienced this... we analyze, design and develop beautifull apps that help the company to cut cost significantly, make its services more marketable and sell more ... but the salary remains stagnant, just a petty increment or "Good Job Roger!". That's it!!! It really pains when you see marketing people brag about your baby software to clients and pocket commission ITERATIVELY. All we usually get are curses if the client faces a problem and dealines to fix it asap. How about the commision man!
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Randhay wrote: How about the commision man
Be the salesman, makes sense. A really good salesman would be able to flog websphere (one of the worst applications ever to be written) and make a ton of cash pushing it through a companys door.
WPF - Imagineers Wanted
Follow your nose using DoubleAnimationUsingPath
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Randhay wrote: when you see marketing people brag about your baby software to clients and pocket commission
And the royal red-carpet welcome they get at the client's place, frequent flying programmes across the globe and the benefits for the sales personnel goes on...
Vasudevan Deepak Kumar
Personal Homepage
Tech Gossips
A pessimist sees only the dark side of the clouds, and mopes; a philosopher sees both sides, and shrugs; an optimist doesn't see the clouds at all - he's walking on them. --Leonard Louis Levinson
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There's something you should all realize...software developers can be had for cheap wages. You see, we get fulfillment out of making it work. We aren't in the business of making someone hand us big checks, so we don't direct our efforts to getting good at making someone hand us big checks.
Salesmen, on the other hand, have one purpose in life: come back with a check, or give up their own check.
Also, most firms can get by without a software developer. No firm can get by without a sales force, because business depends on things being sold.
"Sales is king." - quoted from multitudinous business sources
I started my career in business as a salesman. I'm proud to say that I switched to a profession where I rarely if ever have to put my integrity behind my greed - few salespeople can make that boast.
Christopher P. Kile
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cpkilekofp wrote: most firms can get by without a software developer
Not to offend but from a developer's perspective this query would apply. Wouldn't that be like a mortuary with no active development and just but old products being circulated and rotated? How long would that keep rolling unless there is an active development at all?
Vasudevan Deepak Kumar
Personal Homepage
Tech Gossips
A pessimist sees only the dark side of the clouds, and mopes; a philosopher sees both sides, and shrugs; an optimist doesn't see the clouds at all - he's walking on them. --Leonard Louis Levinson
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Anyone that picks up a paint brush can call there self a painter, but few people can apply it with a high level of skill. The ones that can leave a lasting impression, those don't leave a mess for someone else!
Mike
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the
moments that take our breath away. "George Carlin"
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Mike that is so true !
Wisdom is often meant as the ability and desire to make choices that can gain approval in a long-term examination by many people.
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Cape Town Developer wrote: Wisdom is often meant as the ability and desire to make choices that can gain approval in a long-term examination by many people.
Hadn't seen this before...Good saying
Cape Town Developer wrote: Mike that is so true !
Thanks,
Mike
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the
moments that take our breath away. "George Carlin"
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Mike Hankey wrote: few people can apply it with a high level of skill
I have found out recently that few painters can apply paint as well as I do. Long story short we ended up firing 3 painters because their work (on two bathrooms) looked like that this was the first thing they ever painted. All the edges were horrible (no where near straight), they obviously did no prep work at all. I really can not believe they would assume that was acceptable for a nice house.
Last modified: 21mins after originally posted --
John
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John,
John M. Drescher wrote: I have found out recently that few painters can apply paint as well as I do
Over the years I've convinced my customers (by demonstration) that the above is true. In particular I did a little carpentry work for a customer, who became a good friend. It took him and a helper 1 wk. to prime the inside of a 1200 sq. ft. house and did an OK job. He fired his helper and hired me to do the job but was reluctant to pay me regular price. I told him if he didn't like the job I did after I was finished he didn't owe me anything. I had the job down in two days and he hasn't touched a paint brush since and gave me a tip!
You get what you pay for!
Mike
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the
moments that take our breath away. "George Carlin"
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When I started back in the early 70's, I was put in a class of 12 people for 6 weeks to learn IBM assembler - forwards, backwards, sideways and through wormhole gateways if necessary.
Now, it takes about 6-8 hours to teach a moderately intelligent 16 yr old how to program a simple application using the MS Express tools (student attention span allowing).
You tell me if I should feel proud at the amount of effort I expended to learn all I do know, or if we should feel proud at the incredible advances we have made in automating the work over the last 20 years?
Perhaps a better question is "are you proud that you could write a program to make a sinclair calculate your taxes, build the printer driver to print the results, and hack a parallel to USB plug using using nothing but bobby pins?" 
Honestly, I'm more proud that I can take a business idea all the way through to a decent design and implementation without spending $6,000 on "How to ..." books!
Nothing is impossible, we just don't know the way of it yet.
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I'm not proud of it, but I'm glad I chose it. I'd probably be more proud of it though if I wasn't stuck doing web dev currently.
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+1 on all counts.
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
-----
"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001
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Hi
It's the quality of the work that should make someone proud, in any profession.
"Silence will create respect and dignity; justice and fair play will bring more friends;
benevolence and charity will enhance prestige and position; courtesy will draw benevolence;
service of mankind will secure leadership and good words will overcome powerful enemies"
Ali (Peace be upon him)
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In fact usually I over-simplfy what I do.... "I am just a lowly software developer, I do a user interface or two."
and leave it at that. It isn't that I am not proud, I am glad I do what I do. I just don't think I need to brag about it. My cousin's a lawyer, she doesn't brag either. It just is.
It's not like it is a competition to see who did best in life. I certainly don't have a great record there, discounting career, so nothing really to brag about there either.
Computer programming is like pinball. The reward for doing it well, is getting to do it again. 
_________________________
Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau.
Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
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El Corazon wrote: Computer programming is like pinball. The reward for doing it well, is getting to do it again.
With your Intel C/C++ compiler that I don't have yet. 
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Jeremy Falcon wrote: With your Intel C/C++ compiler that I don't have yet.
It's just a compiler, Jeremy.  There are a lot of compilers. Many of the same features are in other compilers, Intel just makes it a hair faster in the final code.
_________________________
Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau.
Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
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El Corazon wrote: Intel just makes it a hair faster in the final code
Actually, I'm wondering. Any speed gains on AMDs too or is the performance boost specific to Intel processors?
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