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New Book Argues Automation Is Making Software Developers Less Capable
dcblogs writes: Nicholas Carr, who stirred up the tech world with his 2003 essay, IT Doesn't Matter in the Harvard Business Review, has published a new book, The Glass Cage, Automation and Us, that looks at the impact of automation of higher-level jobs. It examines the possibility that businesses are moving too quickly to automate white collar jobs. It also argues that the software profession's push to "to ease the strain of thinking is taking a toll on their own [developer] skills." In an interview, Carr was asked if software developers are becoming less capable. He said, "I think in many cases they are. Not in all cases. We see concerns — this is the kind of tricky balancing act that we always have to engage in when we automate — and the question is: Is the automation pushing people up to higher level of skills or is it turning them into machine operators or computer operators — people who end up de-skilled by the process and have less interesting work?
I certainly think we see it in software programming itself. If you can look to integrated development environments, other automated tools, to automate tasks that you have already mastered, and that have thus become routine to you that can free up your time, [that] frees up your mental energy to think about harder problems. On the other hand, if we use automation to simply replace hard work, and therefore prevent you from fully mastering various levels of skills, it can actually have the opposite effect. Instead of lifting you up, it can establish a ceiling above which your mastery can't go because you're simply not practicing the fundamental skills that are required as kind of a baseline to jump to the next level."
I certainly think we see it in software programming itself. If you can look to integrated development environments, other automated tools, to automate tasks that you have already mastered, and that have thus become routine to you that can free up your time, [that] frees up your mental energy to think about harder problems. On the other hand, if we use automation to simply replace hard work, and therefore prevent you from fully mastering various levels of skills, it can actually have the opposite effect. Instead of lifting you up, it can establish a ceiling above which your mastery can't go because you're simply not practicing the fundamental skills that are required as kind of a baseline to jump to the next level."
Please re-read:
Brooks, F. P. , J. (1987). "No Silver Bullet—Essence and Accidents of Software Engineering". Computer 20 (4): 10. doi:10.1109/MC.1987.1663532
http://faculty.salisbury.edu/~xswang/Research/Papers/SERelated/no-silver-bullet.pdf
Automation removes accidental complexity. /discussion
We automate in order to reduce the costs of development, so we can maximize profits.
That is the only reason. Employer's have no incentive to care whether or not their employees are bored. They don't pay their employees to like their work. They pay their employees to do their work. And if automation makes that cheaper, then full speed ahead! If automation means I can hire a stupider, and hence cheaper, class of laborer, then I win again! Concerns about the long-term cultural implications be damned.
Individual software developers might occasionally write a script that automates some tedious thing they frequently do. That is different, since it is employee-initiated and is an effort at avoiding boredom. The employer tolerates this behavior so long as the net effect is either neutral or positive in terms of productivity. The moment you, as an employee, start arguing that you should invest the employer's time in something that is less profitable but more interesting, you will be replaced.