Slashdot Mirror
Does the 'Hacker Ethic' Harm Today's Developers?
snydeq writes "Fatal Exception's Neil McAllister questions whether the 'hacker ethic' synonymous with computer programing in American society is enough for developers to succeed in today's economy. To be sure, self-taught 'cowboy coders' — the hallmark of today's programming generation in America — are technically proficient, McAllister writes, 'but their code is less likely to be maintainable in the long term, and they're less likely to conform to organizational development processes and coding standards.' And though HTC's Vineet Nayar's proclamation that American programmers are 'unemployable' is overblown, there may be wisdom in offering a new kind of computer engineering degree targeted toward the student who is more interested in succeeding in industry than exploring computing theory. 'American software development managers often complain that Indian programmers are too literal-minded,' McAllister writes, but perhaps Americans have swung the pendulum too far in the other direction. In other words, are we 'too in love with the hacker ideal of the 1980s to produce programmers who are truly prepared for today's real-life business environment?'"
Eh...it depends...my boss can get talent for a little more than $20k a year...for me, I just needed a job to help me pay for the final year of my education and I got lucky as my particular area does not have a slew of tech-industry openings - especially programmers. I don't have any clue how my boss managed to get 5 competent programmers in one building, but he somehow did, and, well, I'm still here despite my low wages...maybe the failing economy helped encouraged me to stay put - at least for now. I think the other thing that keeps us here is the fact that all of us have worked with less-competent people before...*cough*the boss's son*cough* (before we rid ourselves of him)...and we, I think appreciate each other for that, and just enjoy working together...needless to say, I think everyone feels a need to push on for higher wages though...