The reason for being hired
My friend a Java guy (aka old school) , who believes in people wearing coats and ties are non idiots, he was surprisingly bitching about his boss. What? I thought, brainless guys like him thought their boss were eternal God's and obeyed like goats. He was saying why the heck people are not understanding about new software techniques that would ease the development of coding.
Now wait a minute. If this was a Ruby guy it was okay. This guy uses something controlled by Oracle, he is in perpetual 1984, he must be desired to be controlled by a dino head. And he was talking about some cultural changes too. Oh yeah, when the heck did Java guys think of making coding better the last time? 3rd century B.C? Leave less evil Oracle, Microsoft guys have always thought of making people using their technology believe that they are making coding better. Seen Dot Net guys in action? My friends question was, if his boss is so stupid, then why was he been hired by him? Looks like he had run into very rough patch.
Okay time I stop complaining about him. It is my turn. Though I did not speak to him as I thought it would make no difference, but am writing a blog because it would make difference to some one. Now one has to think about the question "Why are we getting hired?". Software engineering is like any other field. An accountant needs to know about new financial situation, a stock trader must know about the industry he is investing, and it changes with time. When we think about money we go these people. When we have legal trouble we seek a lawyer even though law is open to every one. Similarly one who is idiot in software needs to seek us. As simple as that.
I didn't say that to my friend as his boss is his "Godfather", and he would be offended if I say he is an idiot in finance and blah blah. He wouldn't see the joke in it like a city guy would, he is from the south. From Coimbatore (an ultra conservative city), where people take stuff seriously and become members of this Hindu extremist wing RSS. They are curious and nosy and interfere in every other religion and are intellectually weak. They almost don't know how to ignore or get unbothered by stuff.
So its better to have software idiots and lot of idiots around so that the pro's gets hired by them to solve their problems. It like when your spouse cooking goes foul, you hit the fast food. You need pro's to run the world smoothly.