taylor@hplabsc.UUCP (06/28/86)
o be known as the first American president to lose a war. It's not too surprising that a politician would say this; what dismayed me was that I never heard ANYONE in the media mention 1814, and I listen to news radio (both commercial and NPR) a lot. Or perhaps none of them consider having Washington occupied, the Capitol burned, and the government "suing for peace" as constituting "losing a war"? (There's also the reference to "Western Civilization", as if the rest of the world weren't important, but let's not go into that here. :-) I've always sorta liked the old warning about a society that honors shoddiness in philosophy because philosophy is a lofty occupation, while deprecating quality workmanship in plumbing because plumbing is a lowly occupation; in such a society neither the theories nor the pipes will hold water. Similarly, I think we should give honor and respect wherever we find quality workmanship, whether it be in a statesman who promotes world peace and well-being, or in a programmer who writes a finely-tuned and bug-free subroutine. We badly need both, and it isn't really necessary that either understand the other's occupation. It is important that we reward them both, else we lose them both. Consider that in the recent months, I have been involved in (OK, I admit it, I instigated some of) several discussions around the fact that, at an salary level of around $50K, I and a lot of my friends are at about the top that we can ever expect to earn as hackers (or programmers or software engineers or ...); this isn't enough to buy a house in the Boston or Silicon Valley areas. We are in fact a new class of landless proletariat, in the words of a famous 18-th century writer. There are two aspects to this that are frightening. One is that, to make more money, we will have to get out of the productive portion of our field, and go into management or marketing, where the rewards are greater. We are thus pressuring our technically-competent people to stop being productive. Another important aspect is that there is no observable relationship between a programmer's competence and income. I know many incompetents that are earning as much as I am; I know many real experts that are making less. There is no sign of any industry pressure to change this.
taylor@hplabsc.UUCP (07/01/86)
-------- This article is from <harvard!rclex!cdx39!jc> and was received on Fri Jun 20 15:41:53 1986 -------- [I'd rather we didn't shoot off on a side discussion of history and it's value in society, but this is an interesting article anyway. --Dave] > Just think of an intelligent adult only storing away the information > needed for [_______________], going through life completely ignorant > of the history of Western civilization, of culture and the humanities, > and generally speaking, not having the wide range of "information" > needed for ethical considerations and an appreciation and understanding > of the world around us. This sounds like most people I know! I mean, really, if our fate depends on most (or even a large minority) of the population ever satisfying such criteria, then we are all doomed. I am reminded of Nixon's saying that he didn't want to be known as the first American president to lose a war. It's not too surprising that a politician would say this; what dismayed me was that I never heard ANYONE in the media mention 1814, and I listen to news radio (both commercial and NPR) a lot. Or perhaps none of them consider having Washington occupied, the Capitol burned, and the government "suing for peace" as constituting "losing a war"? (There's also the reference to "Western Civilization", as if the rest of the world weren't important, but let's not go into that here. :-) I've always sorta liked the old warning about a society that honors shoddiness in philosophy because philosophy is a lofty occupation, while deprecating quality workmanship in plumbing because plumbing is a lowly occupation; in such a society neither the theories nor the pipes will hold water. Similarly, I think we should give honor and respect wherever we find quality workmanship, whether it be in a statesman who promotes world peace and well-being, or in a programmer who writes a finely-tuned and bug-free subroutine. We badly need both, and it isn't really necessary that either understand the other's occupation. It is important that we reward them both, else we lose them both. Consider that in the recent months, I have been involved in (OK, I admit it, I instigated some of) several discussions around the fact that, at an salary level of around $50K, I and a lot of my friends are at about the top that we can ever expect to earn as hackers (or programmers or software engineers or ...); this isn't enough to buy a house in the Boston or Silicon Valley areas. We are in fact a new class of landless proletariat, in the words of a famous 18-th century writer. There are two aspects to this that are frightening. One is that, to make more money, we will have to get out of the productive portion of our field, and go into management or marketing, where the rewards are greater. We are thus pressuring our technically-competent people to stop being productive. Another important aspect is that there is no observable relationship between a programmer's competence and income. I know many incompetents that are earning as much as I am; I know many real experts that are making less. There is no sign of any industry pressure to change this.