Web Developers Are Stupid

http://mcarthurgfx.com/blog/article/web-developers-are-stupid

by diptanu • 17 years ago

20 19 17 years ago

sofal• 17 years ago

Quick summary: Web developers are not stupid.

Quick summary of Michael Braude's blog (the post that article is rebutting): web developers just write HTML/CSS all day, I know nothing about web development on a production scale. I have made the smug assumption that a web startup does about the same thing as Joe's Home Page hosted by Tripod.

I actually take great offense to the original blog post that is referenced. I work at the other big company across the lake from MS (hint: it sells stuff online), and I dare say the work that I've done here is miles more advanced and demanding than anything I've ever done for a desktop app.

And it certainly includes a deep comprehension of compilers, concurrency (oh boy do I ever), inheritance, etc etc.

This guy is just entirely clueless about what it takes to build a production website. His notion of web development is about as accurate as me claiming desktop apps are just drag-dropping controls onto a form in VB.

noodle2• 17 years ago

i agree with the point of the article (i.e., web developers are not stupid)

i'd say that the real issue is that there are lots of good web developers, and they are all are under wraps by big companies, doing the things that they like for a big salary. the bad ones need work, so they're very prolific with their presence and marketing.

the most visible web developers are stupid.

dasil0032• 17 years ago

The real issue is that the original author is having a sour grapes fit over the fact that most development is moving the web, and he's stuck in yesterday's paradigm dutifully churning out his MS desktop schlock while guys without a college education are getting hired to work on highly visible and popular websites and applications.

Of course there are a bunch of talentless hacks out there calling themselves web developers, but that's just a function of the size of the market and the cluelessness of hiring managers.

If the original author was half as smart as he thinks he is, he would know better than to associate intelligence with one technical field or another.

sho• 17 years ago

"guys without a college education are getting hired"

While I agree wholeheartedly with the thrust of your comment, I have to say - I think the age of the college degree is in terminal decline, and nowhere is this more evident than on the cutting edge of IT.

I don't think we're quite there yet that we can declare the college degree to be irrelevant but we're close. In my company it's a "that's nice" thing. Like being a boy scout. Very good for character. Now, onto your demonstrating your ability, and showing you can fit in, which is all we actually care about.

If a school-leaver who wanted to be a programmer asked me today whether he should go to college, I would have difficulty answering him/her. I am leaning towards "don't bother". And FWIW, I went to college.

noodle2• 17 years ago

i like how i got voted down for expressing my opinion and experiences.

potatolicious3• 17 years ago

Well, I didn't downvote you, but I might hazard a guess: you went from a perfectly cogent argument directly to an outlandish and aggressive claim that you failed to substantiate: "the most visible web developers are stupid"

If you're going to make an inflammatory claim that like the least you can do is back yourself up with at least some anecdotes.

al3x• 17 years ago

If I could downvote this, I would.

kyochan• 17 years ago

I am stupid, but that just means you're too smart to do my job.

seldo• 17 years ago

The guys who carved Petra out of a mountain are arguably better at masonry that the guys who build houses by piling bricks on top of each other, but who's better at making houses?

potatolicious3• 17 years ago

Not a good analogy ;) Petra has stood the test of time for centuries, how long do you think your average brick house will stay standing?

nopassrecover• 17 years ago

Exactly, he pointed out the question isn't about Masonry skill but rather application. Having said that I disagree with his sentiment (web development isn't just building average brick houses).

gexla• 17 years ago

Easy: Majority of the code being written day to day whether it's for the desktop, the web or some other device.

Hard: Running a successful business on the easy part.

I don't care what sort of software you are writing. I'm a business owner. I'm a web developer but my real business is dealing with people, not machines.

Barnabas• 17 years ago

"We despise all reverences and all objects of reverence which are outside the pale of our list of sacred things and yet, with strange inconsistency, we are shocked when other people despise and defile the things which are holy for us." -- Mark Twain

cema• 17 years ago

Somehow I read it as "we despise all references and all objects of reference..." and had to do a double-take. :-)

pbhjpbhj• 17 years ago

There seems to be a bit of a trend for "$groupOfPeople are stupid" posts - presumably it's just an attempt to be inflammatory to get links and visibility.

People who post "$gOP are stupid" posts are stupid. Read about it on my blog ...

plainspace• 17 years ago

How are we defining "web developer" here?

This is from our friends at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_developer

A web developer is a software developer or software engineer who is specifically engaged in the development of World Wide Web applications, or distributed network applications that are run over the HTTP protocol from a web server to a web browser.

and

Modern web applications often contain three or more tiers, and depending on the size of the team a developer works on, he or she may specialize in one or more of these tiers - or may take a more interdisciplinary role. For example, in a two person team, one developer may focus on the technologies sent to the client such as HTML, JavaScript, CSS, and on the server-side frameworks (such as Perl, Python, Ruby, PHP, Java, .NET) used to deliver content and scripts to the client. Meanwhile the other developer might focus on the interaction between server-side frameworks, the web server, and a database system. Further, depending on the size of their organization, the aforementioned developers might work closely with a web designer, web producer, project manager, software architect, or database administrator - or they may be responsible for such tasks as web design, project management, and database administration themselves.

Web Developers Are Stupid

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