Proponentes of The Arts and Crafts movement shared your point of view over a century ago. The Industrial Revolution initially spurred a deluge of cheap, mass produced, gaudy architecture and home furnishings that could be sketched out by any Joe Schmoe with a pencil and compass and then put into production almost instantaneously with cheap labor and whiz bang machinery, and those who had spent their lives training as craftsment felt threatened by that.
However, shortly after, these craftsmen learned to embrace the benefits of this revolution, transforming themselves from producers to designers and architects, leading to the golden age of their craft: Modernism. In their new role, they were free to create better products, products that could be rapidly prototyped and produced, driving down costs and bringing asthetics and comfort to the growing middle class. This is how schmucks like us can afford flat screen televisions, iPods, and Eames lounge chairs.
In other words, by outsourcing and commoditizing the actual coding, we computer scientists free ourselves up to engineer better software, which in turn means cheaper, higher quality software for everyone. At least in my opinion.
Slashdot Mirror
Proponentes of The Arts and Crafts movement shared your point of view over a century ago. The Industrial Revolution initially spurred a deluge of cheap, mass produced, gaudy architecture and home furnishings that could be sketched out by any Joe Schmoe with a pencil and compass and then put into production almost instantaneously with cheap labor and whiz bang machinery, and those who had spent their lives training as craftsment felt threatened by that.
However, shortly after, these craftsmen learned to embrace the benefits of this revolution, transforming themselves from producers to designers and architects, leading to the golden age of their craft: Modernism. In their new role, they were free to create better products, products that could be rapidly prototyped and produced, driving down costs and bringing asthetics and comfort to the growing middle class. This is how schmucks like us can afford flat screen televisions, iPods, and Eames lounge chairs.
In other words, by outsourcing and commoditizing the actual coding, we computer scientists free ourselves up to engineer better software, which in turn means cheaper, higher quality software for everyone. At least in my opinion.