Andreessen Horowitz has generated a positive reputation (in a field where most of its counterparts are ridiculous, incompetent assholes, so seeming strongly competent provides prominence) but here's a stark indicator for "wolf in sheep's clothing": http://a16z.com/2014/07/30/the-happy-demise-of-the-10x-engin... . Read it.
If you don't have a nose for rot, I'll point your way to it:
Today, if you have a great idea for a software product, you need to either
be an engineer or find one. Tomorrow, that billion-dollar startup acquisition
might not need an engineer at all.
I have no direct knowledge of A16Z, but admitting a desire to make software "a low-skill trade" is chewing our food for us. The moral conclusion is right there. They've actually admitted to being the bad guys, to wanting to commoditize top talent in favor of our MBA-culture colonizers.
Most of the time, the bad guys don't say, "We're the bad guys". You actually have to do some research. You have to poke around the countryside and find the emaciated political prisoners and the mass graves to figure out who the bad guys are. Not here. The good news is that the Silicon Valley elite have such unprecedented arrogance that, often times, they'll actually admit what they are. They'll flat out say, "fuck you programmers, you had your turn."
For those who aren't educated on the matter, the evil of Silicon Valley's last 20 years is that it has become an economy of resource extraction (like Saudi Arabia) instead of one that genuinely creates wealth. The difference is that, instead of said resource being oil or natural gas, it's the intelligence and energy of each generation of young people that hasn't figured out, yet, that the only people with a decent chance of getting rich in this Valley game are VCs and landlords (i.e. not them, the people doing the actual work).
Your acting just like the old factory worker who's pissed that his profession is starting to become more automated. Wake up and smell the coffee, developers are getting more productive and you have to adapt to the decreasing demand that this will cause. Programming is job in the labor market just like a fast food cooker. If you want to make some more money, either learn some skills that most other people do not have and that are needed (low supply, high demand), or start a company so that you can make some profits (which technically have no limit).
BTW, I think you need to look at the salaries of some other professions. I'm gonna be making 6 figures out of college as an SDE, while most of my engineering and business friends are going to be making about half of that. Talk to non engineering/business majors (cough, communication majors, cough) and the pay gets even worse.
You're right, of course. Developers still hold a lot more of the cards, and power, than investors would like.
But you're also missing the irony here: when software foundations consolidate, so will everything else in software. Instead of a thousand crazy 'apps' like SnapChat, you'll have user-derived variations, fulfilling the long tail, leaving little need for VC and the silly valuations they inspire.
If you don't have a nose for rot, I'll point your way to it:
I have no direct knowledge of A16Z, but admitting a desire to make software "a low-skill trade" is chewing our food for us. The moral conclusion is right there. They've actually admitted to being the bad guys, to wanting to commoditize top talent in favor of our MBA-culture colonizers.Most of the time, the bad guys don't say, "We're the bad guys". You actually have to do some research. You have to poke around the countryside and find the emaciated political prisoners and the mass graves to figure out who the bad guys are. Not here. The good news is that the Silicon Valley elite have such unprecedented arrogance that, often times, they'll actually admit what they are. They'll flat out say, "fuck you programmers, you had your turn."
For those who aren't educated on the matter, the evil of Silicon Valley's last 20 years is that it has become an economy of resource extraction (like Saudi Arabia) instead of one that genuinely creates wealth. The difference is that, instead of said resource being oil or natural gas, it's the intelligence and energy of each generation of young people that hasn't figured out, yet, that the only people with a decent chance of getting rich in this Valley game are VCs and landlords (i.e. not them, the people doing the actual work).