| The thing that's really changed in this business is that coding went from being about constantly solving things that had never been done before, to work where the solutions are about doing things the "right" way. For decades the field of technology was brand new. Nothing had been done before. Everything was about building something from nothing. It used to take a tremendous amount of creative brainpower and unique perspectives on problem solving to get things done. Now it's all about solved problems. People who thrive doing creative, complex problem solving have to look at the world with the eyes of an outsider. They need to see things differently to hit on the right solutions quickly. They're outsiders - geeks, on the fringes of society. So coding was a geek's world. But now tech has matured. The majority of the work is about ripping out the creative hacker madness of the previous generation and replacing it with things that are the "right" way. The work of coding (for the web at least) is not about solving for unknowns anymore. You take away the creative thinking, you don't need outsiders. The work becomes simpler and more accessible to the average Joe. People who just want a job that pays well, who are motivated by routine and doing things the "right" way. Who are happy to spend all day gutting a codebase to replace it with boring well trodden solutions. The new replacement coders aren't motivated by the creative satisfaction of building things from nothing. Their motivations are completely different. Things like money, like social status. These are the guys who are thriving in the business now. For those of us who like building things and creative problem solving, our time here is done. It's a bro's world now. |