As a developer who also knows plumbing (and other trades), I'd beg to differ. When I talk to neighbors and friends, most of whom are highly "technical", they look at me in disbelief when I suggest they resolve a plumbing (or carpentry or mechanical) issue on their own. I get the "I have no idea where to start", or "I don't have any tools", and so on. It's not a lack of available information, it's the fear, in many cases extreme fear, of the ramifications of not "doing it right": a flood in the house, a wall that collapses because you hacked through a supporting structure, an electrical short that burns the house down, and so on.

You build a website and maybe it doesn't work right (has bugs). In most cases, no one dies or gets hurt. You mess up plumbing, electrical, etc and that's not the case at all. It's easy to look down on the non-technical trades since we live in a time that glorifies (like the OP says) the art of programming. But next time you have a major plumbing issue, your heat pump goes on the fritz, you car dies on the highway, consider how helpful it is to know RoR, Java, C#, etc. Not too much...

I'd like to point out that a good plumber can make almost as much as a web developer. I know a plumber who makes $90k. People gladly pay premium money for a good plumber for the same reason they will pay for a good developer: the costs and headache they save by making sure the job is done right are well worth a high upfront cost.

Is this really the case? Growing up, my family did pretty much all of their own plumbing/carpentry/electrical work, so I'm kind of surprised that that's not the norm. Its honestly not that hard to figure out, and its also pretty easy to make sure that messing up doesn't do any long-term damage.

The extreme of this was when we spent a year or so finishing our basement; everything from framing to wiring/plumbing to painting was done on weekends by us. I wouldn't say that I "know" any of those trades, but I know how to look up instructions on the internet or ask someone at Home Depot.

I think that you are not the norm. I feel that I am a pretty smart guy, and I know how to do good, in depth research on the Internet. But I have to say, I got a lot of cringing looks from my girlfriends family when they first saw me using a chainsaw with an iPad propped up next to me with instructions on proper chainsaw operation techniques display displayed next to me.

There is data, there is information, there is knowledge, there is experience. And then there is wisdom.

Just because there are more ramifications doesn't make it more complex. Proving a mathematical conjecture is more complex than driving a forklift, even though driving a forklift is dangerous to yourself and your surroundings if you aren't careful, while solving a mathematical conjecture might give you a paper cut at worst.

Additionally, I'm not one to invoke the class war most of the time, but am I meant to feel bad that value is going to me rather than to suits and investors? Don't make me laugh.

Good development is hard, but so is just about every job.

I've been attempting to farm, a job that popular media will have you believe any slack-jawed yokel can do, for the past few years. It has been quite an eye-opening experience, making programming seem like child's play by comparison. If any slack-jawed yokel can do a job that is more difficult than development, where does that leave developers?

You are right that we should value ourselves and feel good about our accomplishments. Being able to develop software is a pretty significant one. But we should not feel the need to minimize other professions to make ourselves feel that way. They are doing things that are just as complicated and important, and they should feel equally good about those accomplishments.

This isn't a negative, self-worth thing, it's a perspective thing.

What the OP here is describing, is exactly the mentality that leads to this nonsense: http://programmingisterrible.com/post/50421878989/come-here-...

A lot of people would agree that empathy is one of the large components of what makes us "human", and that's rather vague, but it does make evolutionary sense for why empathy is useful for societal progress. And guess what, perspective is crucial for empathy. If we assume for a minute that almost nobody really lacks empathy, then what could be the only possible factor that produces an outcome like the one described in that link above? I'm sure most of us tech people aren't narcissists/sociopaths, so the only thing that could explain it is a skewed perspective that makes it permissible to rationalize a lot of the nonsense around us as being 'okay', or 'not relevant' to us. Empathy is a function that takes perspective as an argument, and if we assume that our empathy functions are correct (no reason to think they aren't usually), shouldn't it be good when we realize it's giving us the 'wrong outputs', and then do something actionable about it like try changing our perspective (or input)? I've battled with a lot of self-criticism and depression myself, but I see nothing wrong with this. On the contrary, it seems like the healthiest thing we could do as we approach a possible 'bubble' scenario.

I think the problem is that the OP is labeling what he's arguing with as "web development" when it's really more of a subset of startup culture that he's referring to, not all web developers (he lauded the 'adults' that created Rails remember? I'd say they're 'web developers').

Also, it isn't that things are trivial to us, it's that they can be trivial, period. It just doesn't look that way from the outside, so we benefit (and are congratulated) for "daring" to look into the black art that is computer programming and actually producing something, anything... imagine if it were socially deemed adventurous to look into plumbing, it would have a similar outcome (albeit without all the VC nonsense probably).

Also:

> Jet packs and flying cars were always a terrible benchmark to measure human technological progress against.

Not really, because we do have jetpacks (albeit not exactly efficient/affordable ones), and lets not forget that Google is developing self-driving cars! I'd say the notaion that any vehicle could drive itself is an even crazier idea than having something that's redundant with a small glider/aircraft at this point, and I'm sure people from the 1930's would probably agree.

So then why wouldn't it be good to use existing ground-breaking projects as benchmarks for human progress and value? A lot of web startups sure do fall short of that benchmark too.

> I think the problem is that the OP is labeling what he's arguing with as "web development" when it's really more of a subset of startup culture that he's referring to, not all web developers

You hit the nail on the head. I'm a web developer, and what I do is build websites and other online solutions for non-profits. They range from the very small, to the very large (many millions of dollars in budget). I'm paid less because most of our clients pay less, but I'm happy with my contribution to society, and that's what matters to me.

It's not the job, it's the context in which that job is performed.

Off-topic: Can you contact me (email in profile) as I am trying to rebuild my portfolio of work from scratch (as I've been out of the tech world for a decade) and rather than put up files on github scratching my itches, I have been trying to find non-profits or charities to re-do their websites (for free). My skills are very rusty, but I am pushing ahead to get up to speed with the modern tech world. (I programmed in the 80s and 90s everything from AI to geocities, but spent the last 15 years living life and trying different things)