Are Software Developers a Writeoff?

My friend Ted introduced me to the idea that we won't be able to see the real effects of the web until the time when the last person who can remember the days before the web dies out. In his view, if you can remember life before the web, then you're not capable of fully grasping the web.

I tend to agree with him. The web is such a drastic paradigm shift that we're not really capable of fully grasping its significance.

But the young and upcoming generations, who can't remember the days without the web, will be much better equipped to cope with it. Same as I take electricity and indoor plumbing for granted, my children take the web and the perpetual availability of the wireless connectivity for granted.

And that makes them a different kind of persons than I, their father, am. And I find that to be a very fascinating phenomenon.

New Breed of Software Developers

Similar to how my children are a new breed of humans who have a completely different outlook on the web than I do, there is an upcoming new breed of software developers who are diametrically opposite from the existing, entrenched batch of software developers.

The existing developers, as I've been discovering through gruesome series of interviews lately, seem completely oblivious to the incredible powers of the web. All the developers I talk to seem to think that the only way to accomplish something in the software development arena is to use the function calls. They all follow the software vendors' lead, which typically means more complexity, more heavy lifting, less palatable solutions.

Because this tendency is so pervasive and ubiquitous among the existing software professionals, I have reached a point where I'm pretty much ready to throw the towel in. In other words, I'm this close to call all your typical software developers, all those entrenched Java, J2EE, .Net, Oracle etc. developers a big fat writeoff.

I am slowly starting to think that this workforce, as huge as it is, is pretty much useless when it comes to business computing. Some of them may be good for developing certain components of the computing infrastructure. But as soon as we get to the point of utilizing this infrastructure for the benefits of the business, they all turn to be nothing but a writeoff.

And by 'writeoff' I mean more harm than good.

This is why I'm forced to turn my attention to the young and upcoming generation of software developers. We need to ensure that these young people don't get tainted by the tool vendors' agendas and business models. We need to make sure they don't get caught in the remote procedure call hell.