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Subject:RE: India - Wave of the Future? From:"Mark Baker" <mbaker -at- ca -dot- stilo -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 3 Sep 2003 10:35:03 -0400
Dick Margulis
> High-tech workers are no different. We think we have a RIGHT to keep
> doing what we do, because we're CRAFTSPEOPLE, dammit! Don't those bosses
> know we can't be replaced!?! And we're on the cutting edge of
> technology; our skills CAN'T be obsolete. Well, folks, tell it to the
> steelworkers.
>
> It's natural law. Adapt or die.
And actually, if you are on the cutting edge of technology, your skills are
going to be made obsolete really really fast. That, after all, is what the
cutting edge is cutting: it is cutting away the old established ways of
doing things, and all the skills that go with them.
It is precisely for this reason that the cutting edge is a place for the
educated, not for the trained. If you train for a cutting edge job, you have
fundamentally misunderstood what the cutting edge is like.
When I hear tech writers lamenting the loss of jobs and the fall of
salaries, I confess I am somewhat perplexed. Surely it was obvious, even at
the time, that the salaries for ordinary technical writing jobs were way out
of whack in the 90's. Isn't that why so many people rushed to join the
field? I don't fault anyone for jumping on the gravy train. But surely it
should have been obvious that this was a temporary bonanza. In the seven
years of plenty, the wise man rejoices and lays up stores for the seven
years of famine that are to come.
Instead of complaining, people should be saying, "So long and thanks for all
the fish," and moving on.
---
Mark Baker
Stilo Corporation
1900 City Park Drive, Suite 504 , Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1J 1A3
Phone: 613-745-4242, Fax: 613-745-5560
Email mbaker -at- ca -dot- stilo -dot- com
Web: http://www.stilo.com
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