A post on Slashdot struck a nerve with me. The writer asks whether there's a company out there where he can simply develop software on reasonable schedules and expect to work until he retires.
A former manager of mine at my old startup and I get together when I'm in the Bay Area. We last worked together in 2001. Since then he's been with four different companies. Most of them have either died, been acquired, or moved from the Bay Area. He and his wife have two young sons and substantial bills. He's a superb software developer and manager. He was being completely sincere in saying to me that he doesn't know if he'll be able to make a living writing software.
I've had more than my share of lucky breaks since I was laid off in 2001. I realized then, however, that I couldn't survive building software as I'd done it before. Smaller software boutiques were crashing and burning. I didn't want a larger company experience; I'd had that working for IBM/ROLM/Siemens in the 80's. I changed my act to one where I act as an in-house technology advisor. When I build code, it's highly customized to fit neatly into the business workflow. In effect, I've added a high-touch aspect to my work. I don't think being high tech alone works any longer. High-touch then high-tech is much harder to outsource, because the human element is most important.
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