As Silicon Valley Retrenches, a Tech Talent Shift Accelerates

These all feel like cost centers of society: health-care, banking, retail. We need them, they are essential, they sustain us, they have worth, but they are not producers of value. As industries, they are distinctly apart from that which creates. Albeit they themselves can be improved via creation.

Then again, I'm not super proud of what tech has been up to in general. Ursala Franklin talking about work vs control technologies, about holistic vs prescriptive[1]: tech too often lately has been about efficient extraction, about capturing value, rather than creating.

Tim O'Reilly saying "Create More Value Than You Capture," since at least 2009[3], has had a huge huge impact on me & how I assess the world around me, the actions of myself & others. I wish I saw this value-system reflected a little more. Hopefully some of these actors here can co-enhance with their actions, can find some tech value worth giving away, to improve the fitness of the world.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursula_Franklin#Holistic_and_p...

[2] https://www.slideshare.net/oreillylearning/create-more-value...

What I've noticed in my career of going back and forth between pure tech companies and mainstream industries with technical needs is that invariably mainstream industry is in at the tail end of "early majority" and usually in the "late majority" or later. This can be frustrating but also an opportunity to be ahead of the game. Also of note, mainstream industry, however dedicated their commitment to technology, will always see the software end as a cost center, and subject to all the constraints implied thereof.