U.S. Programmers An Endangered Species?

CommanderData writes "USA Today reports that US Programmers are an 'Endangered Species' and expects them to be 'extinct' within the next few years, replaced by offshoring and H-1B visa holders. They suggest people will manage overseas projects, become self-employed, or switch to other fields. What do my fellow code-dinosaurs plan to do before the asteroid hits?" A report on Newsforge (which is part of OSTG along with Slashdot) shows the flip side of the coin.

Asteroid

[Anonymous Coward]

Wait a few millenia and the rest of us will have another fine batch of crude!

Endangered Species?

[JUSTONEMORELATTE]

Sweet! Now it's finally against the law to kill and eat me!

--
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Saving the species..

[D-Cypell]

Sadly, programmers are particulally endangered due to their inability to mate in captivity.... or anywhere else!

Wal-Mart

[DoctorPepper]

I figure Wal-Mart is always an option. Hmm, stock shelves or pass-out shopping carts... decisions, decisions.

I'd...

[Anonymous Coward]

...at least like to get laid before going extinct

Well, according to the last debate...

[Undefined Tag]

Didn't Bush tell us to go to a community college and educate ourselves so we can get higher paying jobs?

Re:Programming versus Software Engineering

[D-Cypell]

Great!! So all the cool hacking goes of to india and us western programmers get the sucky work!

I am claiming asylum in india based on the fact that every nerd has the right to hack code and eat curry!

Cockroaches never die

[narsiman]

Become a PM

if we had to pick

[nktae]

You know its too bad that programmers are endangered, luckily they have mostly evolved into software engineers. Its just too bad we can't pick which jobs are endangered, I think we could afford to have lawyers a little more endangered. But please don't let them be come endangered by evolving, I can't imagine what a lawyer evolves into but it probably has fangs.

How to get famous

[charlesbakerharris]

Well, as a U.S. programmer, I have to say that if I can get my 15 minutes of fame on TV, I don't particularly care if it's with David Attenborough simply because I'm listed as endangered... Any TV face time is good TV face time.

If offshoring is cheaper than in-house...

[rah1420]

... then I guess take-out is cheaper than home-cooked.

Re:Well, according to the last debate...

[micromoog]

"No Child Left Behind" will save your job! Don't ask how, it just will!

Re:Endangered Species?

[jbrocklin]

Not to mention, scientists will set up reserves with massive attempts to create offspring!

Re:if we had to pick

[operagost]

I hear it has fins and a cartiliginous skeleton.

Re:Language issue

[YankeeInExile]

The language issue is that Indian programmers can, by and large, read and write English. Something that consistent readers of Slashdot will find American programmers are incapable of.

Re:Programming versus Software Engineering

[TimeZone]

Let me be very clear, you cannot design a program (software engineering as you seem to call it) if you have never written code.

From what I've seen, most people cannot design a program even if they have written code.
TZ

Re:Wal-Mart

[Digital Mage]

Just like programming...consider stocking shelves as implementing a sorting algorithm and passing out shopping carts as developing a shopping cart module for an ecommerce site. ;^)

Since you won't have a job anyway,

[lifebouy]

Build kickass open-source software to meet the needs. Basically, it would be saying, "If I can't have the job, you can't either." If India steals your job, make the job evaporate out from under them. See? With open source, everybody wins!

Re:Well, according to the last debate...

[Kenja]

"Didn't Bush tell us to go to a community college and educate ourselves so we can get higher paying jobs?"

I checked, my community colledge didn't have a course in getting jobs from my daddies rich friends. Seems only the schools in Texas have that.

Re:Saving the species..

[ThousandStars]

Well, I've heard most programmers mate with themselves very frequently.

Re:Language issue

[Anonymous Coward]

Something that consistent readers of Slashdot will find American programmers are incapable of.

Don't end a sentence with a preposition.

Signed,
American Programmer :)

Re:Programming versus Software Engineering

[Anonymous Coward]

People in other countries have brians?

Australia has plenty of Bruces, and England has plenty of Kevins.

Re:Whoa! Behind the times!

[BluedemonX]

Lagaan?

Taxes.

Glad I could help...

Re:Programming versus Software Engineering

[scaaven]

Cheney is Grand Moff Tarkin, Bush is Darth Vader

close. I'd say Cheney is Dark Vader, and Bush is Jar Jar Binks.

Re:Well, according to the last debate...

[TrancePhreak]

John Kerry reccomends that you go to France to get your degree in being President of the US.

Re:This shouldn't be modded funny

[Greyfox]

The Bush administation obviously believes that you need to lower your expectations. He said "the jobs of the 21st century" but he didn't say what those jobs were. I think that what you think they are and what he thinks they are must be dramatically different.

You should not expect that six-digit IT job. You should not expect to go to a Brand Name school. You should not expect your children to grow up in a world where there are trees. The world does not owe you these things. You must simply lower your expectations. The Party expects you to do so.

Re:Other fields

[ballpoint]

You Create Concrete Croissants ?
Somehow I doubt people will enjoy them.

Re:Programming versus Software Engineering

[panaceaa]

I'd say Cheney is Dark Vader

I didn't know Hans Solo was gay!!

Re:I don't think so.

[JollyFinn]

Well then there is only ONE option CANADA ;)

Re:Programming versus Software Engineering

[Anonymous Coward]

close. I'd say Cheney is Dark Vader, and Bush is Jar Jar Binks.

And Kerry looks like Lurch. Ha ha ha ha ha. +4, Funny, right? No? Oh, right, this is Slashdot.

Re:I won't be extinct

[LesPaul75]

Funny stuff! Bold, defiant, authoritative statements like that are always amusing.

There's no way my job or our work will ever be outsourced.

Gimme a minute to go grab my "famous last words" notebook... Ok, got it. Let's see... Hmmm, let me scroll down through the list...

• "We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out." -- Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.
• "No flying machine will ever fly from New York to Paris." -- Orville Wright.
• "Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau." -- Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929.
• "The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?" -- David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920s.

Ah, here's a spot for you in the "Engineering quotes" section. I'll put it right next to the one from that guy who built the Titanic. Tee hee.

I think that what's truly funny about statements like this is that every time, the originator of such a statement is trying to convince himself more than his audience.

Re:Well, according to the last debate...

[XMyth]

"Don't be an asshole."

Pot, meet Kettle.

Re:Endangered Species?

[Brandybuck]

"Zoologists anxiously await the result of the latest attempt to mate Joe the programmer at the San Diego Zoo. Joe, a 39 year old Unix hacker, represents the future of his endangered species. Last year's mating attempt was a failure, although zoologists say they learned valuable lessons from it.

"We were so sure then that we would succeed," said lead researcher Bob Bobertson. "For a week we fed him nothing but oysters and Jolt cola." While the introduction of supermodel Heidi Klum to his cage did excite Joe, he still failed to perform in front of a live female, prefering instead the security of his computer monitor.

"This year we're trying a new approach," said Bobertson. "We hired a hooker to dress up as a penguin."

Re:Another indian posing as a 'westerner'

[Frizzle Fry]

That is, I work for a large commercial airline company in Seattle

It's good that you didn't refer your employer by name. I'm sure no one will figure out what company you're discussing.

Re:Programming versus Software Engineering

[Anonymous Coward]

AC: It is truly amazing how many people don't seem to get this and go on repeating the same old canards about how much "brighter" "foreign" students are as compared to US students.

Let's assume that only the best of the best of other countries come to these institutions. Then the following cases arise: 1. These institutions do admit the best of the best of their own country or 2. They don't.

If 1 is true then students of other countries are better than the best of the best of USA.

If 2 is true then these institutions don't attract the best of the best and are teaching only average or less than average students. This means that average and less than average students of other countries are better than average and less than average students of USA.

But if this is true then it means that the best of other countries are obviously better than best of USA. Because how you determine best is determined by how you determine average.

Further, average students of other countries would be classed as bright students in USA.

Choose the case that suits you.

Re:Well, according to the last debate...

[Anonymous Coward]

Since when is being completely wrong equivalent to not remembering the exact wording? I'll have to try that on my next exam.

Don't use computers

[KenSeymour]

I helped develop a intranet website that cut the amount of time it took to handle customer service calls.
When it was put into production, it caused people to get laid off too.

So don't use computers or web ordering. Get on the phone and place your orders with a real person.
Or you might cause them to be laid off too.

Oh, by the way. I got laid off of that job too. Maybe it was karma.

Maybe as programmers we should implement systems that make things take more time instead of less. :)

Re:Language issue

[Wudbaer]

Just nitpicking, but last time I checked India was still in Asia. Damned tectonics... ;->

Re:Programming versus Software Engineering

[achacha]

The money does come out of there and to the lower ranks of society... it's called an executives addiction to cocaine!

In Other News...

[HardCase]

...the same sources are reporting the tragic death of BSD.