So I finished reading Coding Slave last weekend. It's taken me awhile to fully process it. Bob Reselman
has written a book that truly describes the programming
condition. I would highly recommend this book for this reason
alone. I know that we all know the issues, but I really like the
way that Bob puts it into perspective. Some of us (American
Coders) think that the problem is outsourcing jobs to other
countries; the real problem (my opinion) is the fact that we have let
greedy people rule us all, so it's not that there are programmers
working for lower wages; it's that we are all in bondage to the
employers.
Bob talks about the idea of creating a Programming Trade
Guild. This seems somewhat like a good idea, bu I'm not sure it
will solve our problems. I think the real problem is that during
the Internet bubble we cranked out tons of code (very little of which
was very good); then when the bubble burst the companies we worked for
(or hired on to) were looking for ways to decrease costs which meant
that we had to continue working at the pace we did before, but now our
pay was lower (or a least stayed the same)... they took away QA so they
could lay more people off; they took away our project managers because
they were expendable, so now we work harder and harder with less and
less. Ok, maybe I'm painting an overly really bad picture
(and it's probably not that bad), but it seems like we are working
harder and harder. I'm not sure that starting some kind of union
wll resolve the issue (and I think that if Bob really thought that was
the answer, he would have given away Coding Slave from
the start and started the union).
Bob also discusses the fact that we are slaves to the machines, and
not the other way around... we have got to get the machines to serve
us. We need to work less. The 50+ hour work weeks have got
to stop.
I'm not entirely satisfied with Bob's answers (I let you read the
book and see if you can discover them). I personally have 2
answers of my own.
1) Go back to a normal pace and make sure you spend time with
your family! Relationships matter! Otherwise, we are
not all that different than the machines that we program... we're
simply logic circuits.
2) My other answer is a spiritual one.. As I think about the book the words of song by Larry Norman -- The Great American Novel -- ring
in my ears "Don't ask me for the answers I've only got one; A man
leaves his darkness when he follows the Son." (You may have your
own religion the attempts to resolve the question of evil in the
world... if you do then substitute that answer here instead... Life doesn't always make sense).