I apologize if I have misunderstood, but you argued above that one of the reasons for the explosive growth of OSS projects ("cool stuff for free") is because it is primarily a means to gain recognition to "shortcut" the monotony of apprenticeship. That seems to me not entirely but mostly an egotistic motivation ("Look at me, I'm good!").
No. There is no apprenticeship anymore. That's the problem with a convex economy. People have to get through a long "learning" period before the "earning" period in which the market will pay them a living wage.
It's even more convoluted now, because the learning and earning must be intermingled.
In the past, convex work was such a small part of what human society needed done that the effect of this (of making convex labor only available to a privileged class) wasn't such a problem. Now's different because the concave labor that supports the less fortunate is going away.
I'm going to step back from the management stuff because I don't want to start a flamewar. That's not to implicate you, but me. I'm sure good technology management exists, but in my experience it's goddamn rare. The only time I saw good management in software was in the public sector (including a govt. contractor). When people have (expensive for the govt.) security clearances, employees tend to be treated well.
I have once seen a business do software well, but it started to fall apart (culturally) as soon as it needed middle management. No idea if it has solved those problems since then. I left right at the inflection point (no, this wasn't Google) and it's still got a stirling reputation so it's quite possible that they actually got their middle management house in order. Certainly, their tech was excellent.
Ageism in technology is a problem, but there are a lot of badass older programmers who keep on going. But yeah, if you stop learning at 25, then by 40 management is your only option.
No. There is no apprenticeship anymore. That's the problem with a convex economy. People have to get through a long "learning" period before the "earning" period in which the market will pay them a living wage.
It's even more convoluted now, because the learning and earning must be intermingled.
In the past, convex work was such a small part of what human society needed done that the effect of this (of making convex labor only available to a privileged class) wasn't such a problem. Now's different because the concave labor that supports the less fortunate is going away.
I'm going to step back from the management stuff because I don't want to start a flamewar. That's not to implicate you, but me. I'm sure good technology management exists, but in my experience it's goddamn rare. The only time I saw good management in software was in the public sector (including a govt. contractor). When people have (expensive for the govt.) security clearances, employees tend to be treated well.
I have once seen a business do software well, but it started to fall apart (culturally) as soon as it needed middle management. No idea if it has solved those problems since then. I left right at the inflection point (no, this wasn't Google) and it's still got a stirling reputation so it's quite possible that they actually got their middle management house in order. Certainly, their tech was excellent.
Ageism in technology is a problem, but there are a lot of badass older programmers who keep on going. But yeah, if you stop learning at 25, then by 40 management is your only option.