[jeremy6d]

Organize for more control over our working conditions. It's not true that one has the upper hand on pretty much every employer. You'll get money thrown at you, sure. Great benefits, sure. But having control, being able to do something you're proud of, not being shit on by management who's more interested in politics than product -- that's difficult in the current environment.

What we need is a kind of guild for developers. We can't improve our conditions if it's all about maximizing our take home. We have to seek control over the way software development is performed, setting new standards for what is expected of clients and developers. We need to take charge of providing better educations for new developers. We need the open source model to become the primary way code is written, instead of something capital exploits in order to free ride on the "commons" of the community.

People who reduce it all to making a salary can go far, but they're not doing anything for the community who's shoulders they're standing on. Right now we have a scarce skill, but people are trying to find ways to deskill programming and make it a mindless commodity anybody can do. Maybe they'll figure that out one day. We should have a backup plan as an industry.