Economists often divide workers into white-collar and blue-collar categories. White-collar workers typically work in offices on service, knowledge, managerial or administrative tasks, while blue-collar workers do manual labour or skilled trades. Software engineers have long considered themselves white-collar, but the author questions whether that assumption has been wrong.
The author argues that software developers, like builders, plumbers and electricians, make and fix things. The difference is that developers work in bits rather than atoms. Mastering the craft takes years of practice, which makes development a skilled trade that deserves more credit, not less. The author suggests this misclassification may be fuelling the current AI identity crisis among developers.
Blue-collar workers have generally adapted well to technological change, often by learning to manage new tools such as woodworking robots. White-collar workers, by contrast, usually bear the greatest economic disruption from major innovations. Software engineers are now finding that technology can outpace their skills, just as it has for other tradespeople.
The author believes the 30-year honeymoon for software developers is over. Developers were once treated like rock stars, with protected time, salaries far above their peers, and colleagues who accepted their estimates without question. Now they are no longer the most important people in the company. Like seamstresses facing the loom or lumberjacks facing the chainsaw, developers must learn the new tools. Those who do may be fine, and some craftspeople will always keep working by hand because they enjoy it.
Source: Hacker News · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing