Technical writers, human language translators, lawyers, and many other professions are primarily about "active literacy" as much or moreso than software developers.
Do you feel they are all worth $0 too, or just programmers?
The screenplay for The Hunger Games has value. A shopping list also has value. However, their values are very different.
Sure, each was created by a pencil user. But they don't actually have anything in common, so asking how much money pencil users 'should' make doesn't even make sense as a question.
I think you have a specific framework for viewing things, but you are being deliberately obscure rather than just elucidating your thoughts, and so I think the downvotes are just. What would happen if you exercised clarity? Bad things?
You are saying that a pencil user isn't worth anything, but you also recognize that a pencil user can write a script. You feel that it is the script which has value, and not the pencil user. So I suppose you're saying the programmer isn't worth anything, but the program is worth something.
That's one lens to view things, but it's also a gimped on its own. One should have multiple lens.
Agreed that the presentation does not help but it is an interesting train of thought and by far the most interesting part of this particular thread on HN. Indeed the output has value, the skill by itself is of no value. Just like painting has value and writing have value. There are lots of terrible paintings, terrible programs and terrible books. Those have no value, and then there are some really good paintings, great programs, great books. Those do have value. And the skill that allowed the bad stuff to be created is the same skill that allowed the good stuff to be created. So the skill per-se is not the differentiating factor, the quality of the application of that skill is what allows one to create valuable work and being the intermediary between someones ideas and valuable work is why programmers, writers and painters can make a living.
It's the whole basis of IP law and all the associated bits-and-pieces that allow all of us to make a living. Intellectual property has a shadow side, but this side is the one that keeps the IT world afloat.
The same laws that govern file sharing allow writers, programmers and other people skilled in some art to create enough value that they can make a living, sometimes even a very comfortable one and those writers and programmers that manage to hold on to the fruits of their labor long enough can do very well for themselves indeed.
> What would happen if you exercised clarity? Bad things?
Unlikely, but not everybody is equally capable of expressing their thoughts clearly. I should know, I've struggled with this for many years and only in the last 5 or so I've gotten better at that. HN has definitely been a tremendous aid in learning how to express myself more clearly to avoid being mis-understood.
Do you feel they are all worth $0 too, or just programmers?