On 7/16/07, Malcolm Wallace
After all, we would expect the same attributes (intelligence and training) from a neurosurgeon, a nuclear scientist, or someone who calculates how to land a person on the moon. Programming computers may not seem very skilled to most people, but maybe that is simply because we are so familiar with it being done so badly. I'm all for improving the quality of software, and the corollary is that that means improving the quality of programmers (by stretching our brains!).
You want people doing difficult expensive high-risk tasks to be intelligent and well trained, but you want their task to be as easy as possible. Would you rather a nuclear reactor needs to be controlled by feeding in punch cards, or by having a big round dial labelled "power", that you can move from 0 to 200 MegaWatts? Of course, you'd like the guy moving that dial to be well trained and intelligent. Welcome to why flying airlines is well-paid and boring.