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Why Software Is Eating the World

Posted by Soulskill on from the om-nom-nom dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Web browser pioneer Marc Andreessen writes in the Wall Street Journal that software is 'eating the world.' He argues that software's importance to the economy is being underestimated, and will become much more evident in the near future. Quoting: 'But too much of the debate is still around financial valuation, as opposed to the underlying intrinsic value of the best of Silicon Valley's new companies. My own theory is that we are in the middle of a dramatic and broad technological and economic shift in which software companies are poised to take over large swathes of the economy. More and more major businesses and industries are being run on software and delivered as online services—from movies to agriculture to national defense. Many of the winners are Silicon Valley-style entrepreneurial technology companies that are invading and overturning established industry structures. Over the next 10 years, I expect many more industries to be disrupted by software, with new world-beating Silicon Valley companies doing the disruption in more cases than not.'"

3 of 192 comments (clear)

  1. I don't believe it by maxwell+demon · · Score: 5, Informative

    You cannot virtually grow food. In the end, humans need something real to eat.

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  2. Re:Developers still 2nd class citizens by roman_mir · · Score: 3, Informative

    In early 1920s cars were taking over the world.

    Assembly workers were still 2nd class citizens.

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    Those who know "HOW" will always have employment.

    Those who know "WHY" will always be employers.

    --
    You can't handle the truth.
  3. Re:Answered your own question by Billly+Gates · · Score: 3, Informative

    Management hates I.T. because their bosses are accountants who view it as a cost center rather than an asset. The problem is the bean counters are all upper management in most fortune 1,000 companies today and frankly do not care about productivity as programmers waste money anyway.

    Many are switching to clouds and switching from C#/C++ to Excel. If Excel was fine for these bean counters then it is fine for real programming too. Then they do not have to waste it on I.T. and these silly contracptions called databases.

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    http://saveie6.com/