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App Developers, It's Time For a Reality Check

Nerval's Lobster writes: "An article in the Harvard Business Review does its best to punch a small hole in the startup-hype balloon. 'Encouraging kids to blow off schoolwork to write apps, or skip college to become entrepreneurs, is like advising them to take their college money and invest it in PowerBall,' Jerry Davis, Wilbur K. Pierpont professor of management at the Ross School of Business and the editor of Administrative Science Quarterly, wrote in that column. 'A few may win big; many or most will end up living with their moms.' Whether or not the unfortunate developer ends up back in the childhood bedroom, it's true that, with millions of apps available across all mobile platforms, it's increasingly difficult for independent developers to stand out. Compounding the problem, some of the hottest companies out there for developers and programmers don't have nearly enough job openings to absorb the flood of graduates from the world's universities. So what's a developer to do? Continue to plow forward, with adjusted expectations: the prospect of becoming the next Mark Zuckerberg is just too tantalizing for many people to pass up, even if the chances of wild success are smaller than anyone rational would like to admit."

2 of 161 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Viewpoint by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    If I could mod you down I would. Fucking ivory tower purist. Some of the best software in the world was written by high school and college "drop out". Attending a 4 year university and paying upwards of 250k for education does not a great programmer make.

  2. Please go to COLLEGE FIRST! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    We want the money your parents saved for us, we want to
    turn you into a raging alcoholic, get you to have gay sex
    and teach you to detest your own race if you are White
    (and your gender if you happen to be male).

    AFTER we are done with you, then you can go back home
    and live with your parents.

    I'm sorry but the ugly truth is, unless you are planning on
    higher education outside the United States you're pretty
    much sunk. The place I work at for example is very much
    prejudiced against hiring college product (that's you). Instead they
    prefer degrees you earn from actual work experience ..
    For example right now we're looking for engineers who have at
    least a Masters in Delivering Results (Mdr).

    I'm not saying that going to school isn't right, but in America
    the education system is broken by design (and on purpose).
    What I said above with taking your money and re-educating
    you to be ineffective as a man or woman, that is not
    over-exaggerating. It is what goes on in US schools and just
    because you're pursuing a degree in Computer Science wont
    shield you from this nonsense. It is the norm.
    You will find that they are more concerned with making sure
    you know more than you care to know about gay rights. Your
    focus may be earning a degree in Computer Science but
    if you are white their emphasis is on teaching you how racist
    you are.