I use Pinboard to place the articles I read into buckets:
* Ruby
* Customer Life Time Value
* Landing Page Best Practices
* Etc.
Then when I need to work on something for my site, I'll reference Pinboard and pull up all the amazing content I've compiled over the years (I imported my Delicious links), do sometime reading, create an action plan, and then go execute.
I do agree that is a strong word. I guess what I was referring to was it's obselenece as a mass profession. I assumed that was implicit, wrongfully.
I was hoping to drive home the point that while coding is the "it" thing right now, eventually someone will build a framework that makes having a technical background moot (similar to the power YouTube has given to the home movie producer or music artist).
I think you may be right in regards to the retail prediction. Amazon is going to continue to absorb the majority of retail sales, especially as baby boomers (the highest spending demographic in history) completes the retirement cycle and diminishes disposable income in the market.
Farming became obsolete because of economies of scale.
Factory work became obsolete because of economies of scale.
Manufacturing became obsolete because of economies of scale.
What do you think is our generation's economy of scale?
I think the near future will involve making it possible for anyone, even those without a technical background, to quickly build beautiful internet products.
What do you think is the next big leap? What would make coding obsolete?
I think you're missing my point. Netflix taking out BlockBuster does not prove they can do no wrong, merely that Reed Hastings a perfectly capable CEO, and smarter than the media would have you believe.
If you read about the history of the company, they started by SELLING DVD's. They barely made any money renting them. But, Reed Hastings made the decision to split that company because it wasn't the future. His 10,000 customers complained but he stuck to his guns. And look at them now. The largest streaming company in the world.
He was placed in the same situation this past year. Stick to a business model with no future (DVD's-a dying medium), or split the company to improve negotiating terms for streaming deals(the future) and hopefully sell off "Quickster." It was a brilliant plan that poised Netflix for the next generation of digital distribution.
Instead they backed down and changed direction, looking weak in the process.
A company in the 70's sold 500 of it's restaurants (it's main source of revenue) and the "pundits" called them crazy. The stock took a hit but the CEO remained on course. He stuck to his guns.
30 years later, it is one of the most successful companies in its industry. You may have heard of them- Walgreens.
The CEO of Netflix is not dumb. He killed Blockbuster. He knew what he was doing when he split the company to save the future of his company.
Fortune 500 tools suck. They are purchased by the bosses to be used by the employees. Even worse, they are often poorly developed in-house as opposed to buying the leading product on the market(wtf?). It shouldn't be a surprise then that 1/3 of these employees then use illegal sofware- not to be rebels, but because they actually want to do good work.
* Ruby * Customer Life Time Value * Landing Page Best Practices * Etc.
Then when I need to work on something for my site, I'll reference Pinboard and pull up all the amazing content I've compiled over the years (I imported my Delicious links), do sometime reading, create an action plan, and then go execute.
Just my dos pesos.