OK, devil's advocate here.  With the advent of Visual Basic quite a few
years ago, I realized that just being a programmer is not going to cut it.
It is a lot easier to write code now than ever.  Faster machines, more
memory have reduced the need for tight, clean code.  My non-technical
brother is writing Access apps with "nice" interfaces that would take weeks
of Cobol and VPlus (or CICS).  Sure, it's crap but it works well enough and
cheap enough for those who ask for it.

So, I decided that in order to differentiate myself from others who can
program, I would learn as much about the businesses and industries that
might hire me.  I became APICS (American Production and Inventory Control
Society) certified, I learned about health-care issues, I learned about ISO
and currently working on Six Sigma projects.  I am trying to anticipate the
needs of my clients before they know they have them and then starting to
think about how to solve them before they ask for a solution.  Maybe like
our manufacturing brethren, we've gotten fat and happy.  Y2K was good times
for many.  It was the "ugly side of capitalism" for businesses and now the
demand is less and we see the "ugly side of capitalism" for workers.  We had
them over a barrel and some charged dearly.  Now the shoe is on the other
foot.  What can I do to be more than just a coder?  How can I differentiate
myself from an over-seas programmer who is probably sleeping while my
customers need to talk to someone?  I don't mind the competition.  Frankly,
as low as the wages they are for them now, it is better than what they were
getting.  I'd rather see them earn money than just get it from some foreign
aid package.  If I legally block them out of the market and keep them down,
they might show up with some explosive new outfits.  Should I get government
protection to keep my fellow man/woman poor in another country?  Personally,
I say no, YMMV.  OTOH, I'm not keen on the whole OPIC thing.  If companies
want to do business in risky places, they need to accept the risk.  Tax
money should not go for that.

Anyway, times change and so should we.  It may not seem fair, we may not
like it, but at some point one must adapt, innovate and overcome or else...

Mark "Engage cloaking device" Wonsil

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