Like… I’m not sure software development has become more complex. While we create more complex systems, we also work on standardizing and making things more robust and easier to maintian.

Also software developers do specialize somewhat, but its nothing compared to the medical profession of even home construction. There are C++ developers, mobile developers, but its also not uncommon for an individual to totally switch language and problem domain when changing jobs. A friend of mine has had three different jobs the past few years, and each one had an entirely different set of tools. The skills in software development are highly transferable.

However if in 50 years from now the “software developer” is as quaint a profession as a “house builder” I wouldn’t be totally surprised.

“So I think the problem is three fold:
a) its easier to specialize
b) its faster to specialize
c) specialist tend to make more money.”

I’m going to send this to my father’s GP.

Anecdote:
My father attended a respiratory specialist for long term follow up of a lung condition and the specialist took it upon himself to advise him about a shoulder pain he was experiencing. After six months of no progress, he attended his GP who took a history, deduced that it had occured after a fall, and immediately diagnosed an un-united fracture of his clavicle!

@ Adam. This is going to end up with millions of barrels of oil dumped into the gulf coast waters. This was preventable. Angry doesn’t even begin to cover a proper emotional reaction. You bet I’m angry. How does that change anything? It doesn’t change the fact that the regulatory agencies hired employees from BP (Sylvia Baca). It doesn’t change the sad history of that well, which had problems as of 11 months ago. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/30/us/30rig.html?pagewanted=all

A jack of all that is tech and service is the only person who can take any request and get the right people involved with little delay for the end user, in this case large hospitals, trauma centers, orthopedics, radiologist ect.

My role is one of organization, but without understanding one would be lost. I have to organize testing data, customer observations/desires, developer resources, post sales and implementations liaison . . . ect. However in order to do my job, no less be good at it, I have to possess at least a modest level of aptitude in every single role required to roll out and support a finished product, I must know who does what and learn how to either do it myself or automate it for future ease of use.

I have techs come in and may know a piece here or there, but struggle putting the whole picture into perspective and so tend to get frustrated, or have a very steep learning curve to deal with the massive quantity of different technology platforms. Its a challenge finding the right person with the right background to really excel in this environment, its far easier to find someone who is a great specialist.

So I think the problem is three fold:
a) its easier to specialize
b) its faster to specialize
c) specialist tend to make more money.

Both Wall-e and Idiocracy came to mind for me.

excellent job on this particular post, steven. anyone who can watch wall-e and not be at least mildly bothered just isn’t paying attention.

the entirety of this discussion is just one specific example of the pitfalls of a totalitarian capitalist society that feeds on profit and demands infinite growth and resources. lucky for us, this whole system can’t last much longer anyway, and will do away with itself for us if we can’t do it ourselves.

tmac, the phrase “[just] human nature” is becoming one of our most dangerous enemies. we are allowing ourselves, teaching ourselves to be accepting and expecting of people still making poor choices based on instinct rather than reason.

consciousness evolved as a trait just like anything else, and was necessarily more crude and less encompassing in the beginning than it is now. its size with respect to brain activity has become bigger and bigger; we started out only aware of existence, now we are aware of all higher level thinking and even some lower level thinking, even aware of being aware; yet here we are in a culture that assumes the size of consciousness is fixed and its battle with our instincts and emotions cannot be won.

we would all do well to fully internalize and better understand the fact that evolutionarily speaking, our consciousness needs to either grow to engulf all brain activity or shrink back out of existence for the human species to stand any chance of finding and maintaining the natural quasi-equilibrium with our environment that all other long-surviving species have found before us.

christianity injected into our culture the notion that consciousness is our god-given blessing and curse. any learned person would agree that this is silly, yet, culturally, we all still live by it, practically speaking.

our way of life must shift. our minds must be changed such that advancing our own evolution is higher priority. if we leave it up to chance, we will surely kill ourselves off, just as any other species before us with a dominating prototype of a new kind of trait. we have the special opportunity to overrule natural selection, and we have so far chosen not to do so.

If they don’t understand it, if they can’t manage it, then they shouldn’t have drilled it. It’s that simple.

The problem with abject conspiratorial maddness is that for all we know is that we could have thought we had a complete understanding of the issues and were wrong. Not the first time that an entire field has been changed because of an disaster born out of innocent ignorance.

In China there would be executions. In America we’ll have to settle for CSPAN torture.

So we have someone whining about a lack of punishment in the United States despite not knowing how the legal system works. Once you become a licensed engineer legal liability falls directly onto you but of course ANGER sometimes trumps rationality in this case.

We are having to do offshore drilling just to keep from regressing. All the new marvelous technology and techniques in the oil industry are simply covering up the fact that the cheap, easy oil is gone.

Mostly, though, I agree with David Weisman. These people knew darn well that this could happen and their foes have been screaming about offshore drilling for years. Mostly they’re demonized as luddites, against progress. @@@

These are not mutually exclusive concepts. Just because we acknowledge complexity doesn’t mean that there is no fault or that this couldn’t have been prevented if things were done properly. I don’t think anyone is making this argument.

Perhaps your point is that even raising the issue is a distraction…? I don’t know. Its still an important enough issue to address, particularly with your statement “If they don’t understand it, if they can’t manage it, then they shouldn’t have drilled it.” I think everyone would agree with that.