[gersonaya]

First of all, the plumbing analogy can be made to many professions. From a certain point of view, engineers, doctors and lawyers are all plumbers too - it's just silly. Said that, I think the author bought the propaganda that want to make us (web dev) feel special and valuable. But hey: that in no way means that the whole world - or even our bosses - think that we are very special and intelligent people. That means they know we produce more and get more creative when in certain environments and being well treated: so they provide. It seemed to me that the author climbed out of the propaganda and now thinks that the whole industry is pointless. He is on the other extreme of the very motivated hipster developer. Don't buy it too: we are needed (now) and our jobs are valuable. So are teachers, cops and many other jobs.