Why We Will Never Have Enough Software Developers

You've probably heard the advice that software as a field is changing all the time , and that you shouldn't get swept up in the framework treadmill, just focus on learning fundamental skills. This is a true, but doesn't explain the "why". For structural reasons, information in software propagates really quickly. This is due to a lot of factors (int

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As Chris explains, as fields develop they accumulate huge bodies of knowledge that researchers are meant to be familiar with before they start contributing themselves. But the weight of that existing knowledge — and the need to keep up with what everyone else is doing — can become crushing. It can take someone until their 30s or later to earn their... See more

Been receiving lots of questions about this from folks who expect AI engineers to result in a wave of mass unemployment. I think the crux of the question is whether there can be such a thing as "too much code" in the world. As farming productivity skyrocketed in the last few… Show more

Nowadays, companies tend to pitch their business models of siloed and quasi innovative problem-solving technology. The whole idea of specialization and offering solutions to particular problems has been haunting us since the time of Adam Smith. Somehow, people seem to forget that no problem arises in isolation. Do we even consider anymore that for ... See more

How can smart, ambitious people stay working in an area where they have no long term ambitions? I think a good analogy for the mistake they are making can be found in computer science.

Developers in particular are also the bleeding edge of any company — people with a natural proclivity toward working as efficiently as possible, with little patience for subpar performance.

It’s not the excessive consumption of code but he excessive participation from users vying for a maintainer’s attention that has made the work untenable for maintenance today