Zagaja.com

Before I was a software engineer I worked in political data. As Deputy Data Director at the Connecticut Democratic Party I was responsible for administering our voter file and helping train volunteers and staff on data driven tactics to win elections. One cornerstone of these tactics is the idea that generally people do not change their minds. Elections are won by finding new voters, not persuading folks to change sides.

In 2018 Apple introduced Screen Time on iOS. It was the natural conclusion of a brewing sentiment among the public that they were using social media and other apps more than they wanted to. Connecting with folks online or playing games is not inherently bad, but people found they would login and spend more time than they intended on them. They were hooked.

In March 2005 Tim O’Reilly published What is Web 2.0. A few months later I graduated high school and with my fresh .edu email address joined a new social network called The Facebook. This blog then launched in 2007 with the promise that I could be part of a larger conversation, and that conversation would be worth our time. Web 2.0 would be participatory and we could not wait to hear what others had to say.

Software engineering is a profession in crises. There is a persistent shortage of folks that can code. People typically enter the field in three ways: they go to a bootcamp, learn on their own, or major in computer science in college. This only gives them the entry level knowledge they need to build applications. Skills beyond that are left to employers to impart, and many of them do not. We have focused so much on getting folks to enter software engineering but in many places lack infrastructure to help folks get good at it once they are there.

Yesterday Sen. Chris Murphy¹ highlighted the disconnect between how Silicon Valley and America see technology. Murphy points out that constituents distrust technology. It overwhelms and vexes, with a feeling that we work for the technology instead of the technology working for us. This is a far cry from the bicycle for the mind that Steve Jobs envisioned. This thread foreshadows potential regulation, but before we regulate we should ask ourselves, why is technology perceived this way?