> google isn't unaware, I'll try not to put words in his mouth, but a google exec said something along the lines that we aren't very far from needing half of the programmers/ IT people we have today
In one way, that's a scary idea (a lot of people will end up looking for work elsewhere). On the other, what programmer wants to do the stuff that can be automated away or done by a non-programmer? Or wants to reinvent the wheel because of NIH syndrome?
Hard to imagine, when I see all the stories about tiny modules in Node.js...but easy to imagine when I see how many JS frameworks are out there.
Still, so much of what we do these days is just tying together other people's libraries, connecting them together and maybe doing a bit of data conversion. My first step when I need to do something is to find out if someone else already wrote the software. Then I can just install+configure+move on to more interesting things.
In one way, that's a scary idea (a lot of people will end up looking for work elsewhere). On the other, what programmer wants to do the stuff that can be automated away or done by a non-programmer? Or wants to reinvent the wheel because of NIH syndrome?