[onion2k]

The overwhelming majority of bespoke software is a CRUD app in disguise (to a lesser or greater extent). You don't need to be an expert to develop things like that - a basic knowledge data structures, connecting to a database, and some UI and off you go. That isn't going to change. So I would argue that yes, we need the horde. We need more of the people at the "bottom" doing the boring stuff than we need at the top doing the hard stuff.

[mildtrepidation]

I don't know about "overwhelming majority," but yes, there is a very large slice of software that is essentially CRUD.

In my recent experience, though, it's almost always attached to, part of, or feeding into or off of something else, whether that's a CMS, API's, satellite sites, or some sort of proprietary custom plumbing.

Many things can be done by novices, and the limited supply of experts means they can't do everything. But for many projects, that boring stuff at the bottom handles the data that's vital to everything else, and it's vital to be careful when using novices to work on the lifeblood of your business. Without careful management, you'd better hope they randomly fail to introduce any serious design flaws or security issues given only "basic knowledge data structures, connecting to a database, and some UI."

[asgard1024]

> We need more of the people at the "bottom" doing the boring stuff than we need at the top doing the hard stuff.

I disagree with that premise. In software, it's all virtual. It can be copied easily. So why there should be boring work at all? I mean, in building houses, sure, one has to go out and actually lay the bricks. But in software?

So why we can't write the CRUD app just once (or twice perhaps, so we wouldn't have a monoculture) and be done with it, work on something more interesting?

In my view, if you're in software doing boring work, you're doing something wrong. Doesn't mean you cannot get a nice paycheck for that, though. :-)