Seth Goodman wrote:
The outsourcing problem is a real mess, and it is a complicated
situation.
[snip]
This ridiculous waste of money is an example of the deeply held
prejudice of many people who make financial decisions today. They know
they need technical talent, but consider technologists as a commodity.
In contrast, they view people with MBA's as smart, hardworking and
deserving far more than what the company can pay them. My personal
belief is that this worldview is more responsible for our current
outsourcing woes than the original economic reason.
My favorite "Dilbert": Pointy-haired boss to Dilbert: "If we can make
100,000 potato chips per hour, why does it take so long to develop
software?"
I noticed very early on in my career (1980 or so) that management types
had no concept of what I did, and considered engineers to be like
interchangeable widgets. Like adjustable wrenches. Any adjustable wrench
can turn any nut.
This prejudice is a hang-over, I believe, from the class prejudice
of english society. In England, today, anyone with a technical degree
is considered basically unlettered. Anyone with a liberal arts
education beats anyone with a technical degree. Technical degrees
are tantamount to, in these USA, a degree from a technical school.
A very different thing, but the attitude is the same.
[snip]
boiled, I paused to think, then asked why. He replied, "I guess it's
harder to find good managers than good technical people." He honestly
and sincerely said those words to my face. Believe me, I couldn't make
up something that stupid if I tried.
Please don't make the mistake of ignoring what we are dealing with. We
can't fight this prejudice with our eyes closed.
How about the prejudice that software engineers are only good
for writing programs, while hardware engineers can design
both hardware *and* software?
Mike
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