I just noticed that over the last few days this site visitor count has doubled. Looking into it in greater detail I realized that I am receiving the overflow of hundreds of visitors to Ethan's blog (see link to the left of this post). Curious as to why all these folks are flocking to his blog, I went over to read his latest posts. Then it became clear. Ethan has taken the hacker's flag to the top of their imagines barricades against the world that doesn't understand or appreciate them. He clearly touched a raw nerve. I read some of the comments to his post and the degree of righteousness and conviction is truly amazing. I had to laugh. Youth. It's so certain and intolerant. But yet out of that religious zeal and rigor come out some real achievements.
Now, let me preface it that I have been on both sides of this fence. In my youth I was a programmer (not a cool terms these days). I experienced the demands and misconceptions of the business types. For the last 20 years, however, I have been the business type. And I must say, it isn't that black and white.
It is a fact, that most of the people who "come up" with "cool" business ideas that need "a little" software development are better off focusing on their day time job. So that bunch should be just ignored. Young programmers (ahem...hackers) should learn early on to run for cover when approached by relatives, friends, and acquaintances about a "cool" idea.
However, there is an isolationist, cult-like culture among programmers. This, pseudo-intellectual, "I can outprogram you", "customers are morons" group-think. They know better then people who pay them. And tend to create wholly unusable, over engineered, monstrosities instead of solutions. Let's face it. Any group of people in excess of 10 will fall into the same statistical fact: 10% genius, 10% morons, 80% in between. That applies to Mensa members and, yes, to programmers (pardon me...hackers).
Given this reality, a valuable programmer is one who applies his skills IN CONCERT with a team of people who help visualize, describe, validate, document, test, and support the resulting work. They are ONLY a part of the mechanism of success. They are not THE sole reason for it. A valuable programmer will seek to understand business drivers behind the decisions and apply the most effective technical solution to address them. It should not be romanticized job of a lone wolf, as hackers see themselves. it is not their purpose to ignore or throw away the information supplied to them and simply do what they feel is correct. They are an INTERPRETER. A highly complex, and creative one, but still ... interpreter.
Having said that, I know of too many business that treat programming like a commodity. It is laughably naive and highly expensive and risky. A client of mine one time looked me in the eye and said: "your people are SO expensive, i can hire twice as many for the same price". Of course she could. But they would produce a small portion of what "my" people would. She is learning this lesson now the hard way. The truth is that programming remains a creative process. No matter how many people have tried to structure it, make it predictable, and make the people interchangeable, they have invariably failed. I have seen them all. The latest re-incarnations are "extreme" development, "rapid" development, etc. etc. etc. Sorry. In the end it's down to people and motivation. You get smart, creative, motivated people with experience in the field you are developing, you get results. You get an anonymous group outsources in India, you may be able to develop something specific..a widget, a driver. But a complex business solution for YOUR needs? Good luck. This is why, with all the latest and greatest development technology out there, the unspoken and uncomfortable truth is that most of the applications developed on the mainframes in the 70's and 80's are still not replaced today. Sure, we have put pretty web front ends on them, but the core business logic, the heart of the application. That's tough stuff. And not many hackers today actually know "tough stuff".
So, hackers on the barricades, here is my advice: get off the barricades and high horses (which ever is applicable to you), start listening and delivering real value for the business that pays your salary (or which depends on your work for success as may be with startups). Yes, a lot of "business types" don't get it. Take the time, explain, "sell", participate. That's what delivers the results in the end.
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