The Extinction of the Programming Species

Max Goff writes "Given the recent chatter surrounding the extinction of the U.S. programmer, /. readers might also be interested in a series of articles I recently penned for java.net -- the Blacksmith and the Bookkeeper (part 1, part 2 and part 3) -- in which I posit that the postmodern programmer (the entire sub-species, not just those domiciled in the U.S.) shares much with the blacksmith of old, and will become just as extinct in relatively short order. It is not due to work visas or outsourcing, but has much more to do with the evolution of work itself."

Comments

Machists

[gingda]

Your analogy only works if you insist that the names used to describe the professions haven't changed.

The need to pump a belows and pound on the iron with a hammer may have vanished, but the need for people skilled at using tools to produce parts for other tools is still filled quite comfortably by machinists.

And they still get paid pretty well.

Re:Their totally right!!

[CableModemSniper]

char*f="char*f=%c%s%c;main(){printf(f,34,f,34,10); }%c";main(){printf(f,34,f,34,10);}

Oh no, now they're self-replicating! Ruuun!

smithy != smith

[crucini]

The author seems to think that smithy means the same thing as smith or blacksmith. A smithy is a smith's workplace.

Re:It's all a fad

[cubicledrone]

Due to a sense of loyalty, tradition, and pride, Disney kept those artists employed long after they ceased to be profitable.

Absolute nonsense. Lilo and Stitch was their most recent film. It was so "unprofitable" (over $260 million at the box office) that Disney has published several DVDs and a made television show from it. Disney kept the animators employed for a whole year before firing the entire studio. Oh, and they were so concerned about wasting money that they flushed the project they were working on (and all the money that had been spent) down a toilet.

Audiences today just don't like to watch untextured, cell-based cartoons anymore.

Really? There are 400 animation studios in Japan. Spirited Away won the Academy Award for best animated feature. The anime industry earns $4.3 billion a year in revenues. Pokemon's total market exceeds $30 billion.

The last hugely successful

Disney

cell-based film was Lion King

Home On the Range, was not a bad movie, but it made no money, because today's viewers want something else.

Yeah, like a writer. There are eight shelves of anime at Best Buy. There is an entire cable network that runs anime 24 hours a day. Some of the highest-rated shows on television are anime. Today's viewers want quality. Disney just doesn't want to pay for it.