The "other things" we are freed up to do are obviously service sector jobs.
Harvard MBAs don't like manufacturing jobs (because they require stocking parts, dealing with engineers and schedules - all stuff they can't "control") and they've somehow convinced nearly all our politicians to believe that one can equate manufacturing jobs with service jobs.
Service jobs just move money from a hamburger-flipper to a hair stylist. No wealth is created -it's only changed hands. Without engineering and manufacturing, the economy will fail.
I've seen articles in newspapers on the demise of manufacturing that then go on to show how service-sector jobs were going to be the savior. Whom are they kidding? It is this focus on service sector jobs at the expense of manufacturing jobs that got us in trouble in the first place.
"Users haven't changed." ???
Ah, but they have!
In the old days, "Users" of technical things were not your run-of-the-mill, I-can't-set-my-VCR, Joe-six-pack types. Today they are. This puts a very different spin on what consititutes a finished product. This is not bad, as most users, even highly technical ones, benefit from an easier-to-use interface, but it does mean more work for the design engineer. Now that he has a larger target audience (a good thing if you ask the salesmen), he has to worry a lot more what stupid people do with his product.
It has been said that 90% of code is written to catch 10% (or is that 99%/1%) of events. Much of this "10%" can be attributed to the breadth of "users" subjected to technology today.
So while certain aspects of my job have gotten easier (I love to browse the web for parts, for example) other things have gotten more difficult.
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Harvard MBAs don't like manufacturing jobs (because they require stocking parts, dealing with engineers and schedules - all stuff they can't "control") and they've somehow convinced nearly all our politicians to believe that one can equate manufacturing jobs with service jobs.
Service jobs just move money from a hamburger-flipper to a hair stylist. No wealth is created -it's only changed hands. Without engineering and manufacturing, the economy will fail.
I've seen articles in newspapers on the demise of manufacturing that then go on to show how service-sector jobs were going to be the savior. Whom are they kidding? It is this focus on service sector jobs at the expense of manufacturing jobs that got us in trouble in the first place.
"Users haven't changed." ??? Ah, but they have! In the old days, "Users" of technical things were not your run-of-the-mill, I-can't-set-my-VCR, Joe-six-pack types. Today they are. This puts a very different spin on what consititutes a finished product. This is not bad, as most users, even highly technical ones, benefit from an easier-to-use interface, but it does mean more work for the design engineer. Now that he has a larger target audience (a good thing if you ask the salesmen), he has to worry a lot more what stupid people do with his product. It has been said that 90% of code is written to catch 10% (or is that 99%/1%) of events. Much of this "10%" can be attributed to the breadth of "users" subjected to technology today. So while certain aspects of my job have gotten easier (I love to browse the web for parts, for example) other things have gotten more difficult.