Why Developers Will Be At The Top Of The Food Chain

Back in 2011, Marc Andreessen (of VC firm Andreessen-Horowitz) famously predicted that “software will eat the world.”
As we revisit this prediction in 2018, it also begs the question:
“If software is eating the world, then will developers become top of the food chain?”

When the top 5 most valuable companies in the world are all technology companies…
Every business, even manufacturing and retail, now utilise technology to such an extent that they can be considered tech businesses too…
And the rapid progress in trans-formative technologies like AI, autonomous vehicles, IoT, blockchain, and virtual and augmented reality are all advancing rapidly…
It is difficult to imagine a world that isn’t almost totally reliant on technology.
And all of this is underpinned by software developers.

What drives the need for developers?

There are two factors driving demand for developers:

1. Organisational drive for improved efficiency
2. Individual desire for information and entertainment

Companies are always striving to improve efficiency and boost performance so there will always be a focus on finding and implementing the technologies that best achieve that. Today, those advances are almost all digital technology driven, whether it be Big Data and analytics, IoT, or automation.
Even the robots involved in mass production of physical goods are all operated by software that needs to be written by developers.
We are also now living in a world where everyone wants everything, right now.
People expect entertainment every waking moment. And there is always a desire for the latest and greatest tech devices or entertainment content.
This demand for “always on” entertainment is driving the creation of smaller, faster, and brighter smartphones. It is also pushing forward virtual and augmented reality technologies that can change the way we see the world – or create an entirely new one.

Why developers are becoming the top of the food chain

The percentage of developers needed in the workforce will only continue to rise to meet our demand for new and engaging technology.
There will also be an expansion of specialist roles within software development to capture the increasing demand for roles such as VR/AR engineer, chatbot developer, or voice and machine learning engineer.
Programming will increasingly be introduced earlier in the education system and have more emphasis placed on it. And as tech companies become larger and more lucrative, it will be the technical roles that will increasingly be recognised and rewarded internally, as tech people are promoted to more and more senior and strategic roles.
The end result will be more focus on programming, more software developers across all industries, more technical people in senior roles of major organisations, and more money being generated by tech companies in general.
All this points to developers having very good prospects for employment in general, as well as having an increasing influence on the direction of companies and even of society as a whole.
Contact the Finite team about how we can help you climb the food chain.

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