Why The Lucky Stiff: Cool programmer or Coolest?

[MadVillain]

I hope this is as inspiring to you as it was to me:

http://vimeo.com/5047563

I really agree with this guy, on a lot of points. One of the things that is a small point in his discussion, that is a REALLY big deal to me, is how homogeneous the developer culture is.

Why are there SO MANY people working on things that have been done before? Why do web developers almost exclusively make e-commerce sites? Why do so many small companies pump out redundant enterprise software? Why is the open source community so focused on duplicating the OS X and Windows desktops or providing new language bindings?

There is so much development time wasted on boring, redundant technology that might occasionally make minute advances in the field of computation.

The one field that is actually progressing is the independent game development community. Independent game developers are not only CRUSHING the big AAA-title companies, they're lapping the development community as a whole. Integrating things like AR and computer vision, new concepts for gameplay, better stories, while EA is pumping out sequel after sequel. Meanwhile, developers like the guy at the beginning at this video are screaming from the mountaintops to get the game industry as a whole back in gear: http://chrishecker.com/Do_Your_Job_Well%2C_Please

And maybe they'll figure it out, but when is anyone else gonna wake the fuck up to this?

Where the fuck are Alan Kay and Xerox PARC when you need them?

[Jaguarstrike]

Pretty much all the technology we have today we had in the 80s, only slower and bulkier.

[cense]

I think the "problems" with the code for hire industry that you describe are not significantly unique to it. Lots of other industries have associated stereotypes and lots of people doing highly redundant work.

If you're looking for the bleeding edge of technological development in software where people are tasked with doing new or relatively new things, you need to look either at academia or private enterprise R&D. There is plenty of decent new theory being tested in the computational field outside of video gaming. Just have to look for it.

[a334jv2df]

He's obviously a drug addict