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Comment by GuiA | Hacker News Reader

I've seen cynical commenters on HN/proggit/etc. write that the reason why companies like Google are so intent on getting more female programmers, and more programmers in general, is that it'd allow for engineer wages to go down over the next decade or two due to the basic laws of supply/demand.

Not sure I fully buy into it- but it's not a crazy argument either, especially given the recent accusations of collusion to keep salaries low between major tech players.

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I don't see the programmer market ever getting flooded. I think it's sort of like writing. Pretty much everyone is taught how to write but not a lot of people can do it well let alone well enough to get paid for it.

"Sort of like writing"?? That's pretty funny. Are you under the impression that there's a writer shortage, or that most people who "write for a living" can easily sustain a middle class lifestyle?

Writing and programming are basically just thinking, manifested as words or code. Most people either don't enjoy thinking, or are bad at it. I think this has and will be true for a very long time.

>Most people either don't enjoy thinking, or are bad at it.

Elaborate on the definitions and prove that with a scientific study. The arrogance here is outrageous.

It's not arrogance. It's knowing the difference in skill it takes to work on an app compared for to working on a platform or the difference between cranking out stories for the Huffington Post and writing an editorial for the New York Times. It simply takes an enormous amount of time to reach the master level of a craft. I don't think the drive to reach that level can taught. A person just needs to be obsessed. Most people don't like computers enough to stare at one at least 8 hours a day for 10 years and read programming books on the side. Likewise, most people don't want to spend all day writing. I think the percentage of people who do will remain constant.

I see the salary of high end programmers only going up.

Google has such a huge reserve of cash that it can afford philanthropic projects purely for the principle of the thing (and I suppose the good PR). A cynical interpretation isn't really warranted, in my opinion.

Why is having more programmers overall, even if it will mean lower wages, a bad thing? You could say the same things about any course about programming that doesn't specifically target 50% of the population.

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