

How to reach "dark matter" developers - AussieCoder

Scott Hanselman has talked about &quot;dark matter&quot; developers (http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.hanselman.com&#x2F;blog&#x2F;DarkMatterDevelopersTheUnseen99.aspx) - the ones working in companies everywhere writing the software that keeps businesses running.  They&#x27;re writing applications in VB6, MS Access, ASP.NET and often using outdated software and outdated practices.  They work 9-5 and when they go home at the end of the day the only technology they use is their TV remote.<p>I&#x27;m not disparaging them.  I work with them.  For them, writing code is just a job and that job helps keep the businesses we depend on working.<p>But they could be so much more productive if they updated their skills and had opportunity to gain new experience.<p>There is no shortage of educational information and opportunities on the web, but these aren&#x27;t the type of people to go looking for it.  It needs to come to them, in their workplaces, ideally during their working day.<p>So, my question is this - if we want to help them enhance their skills and experience, how do we reach them?
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dkuntz2
I think the real question is: do they want "help"?

They're doing perfectly well. They fill their role, they do their job, they do
what they want during their free time. Who are you (or anyone) to say that
needs to be changed?

The last paragraph of Hansleman's post captures it perfectly:

> The Dark Matter Developer will never read this blog post because they are
> getting work done using tech from ten years ago and that's totally OK. I
> know they are there and I will to support them in their work.

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AussieCoder
My concern is that whilst they think they are doing their job, the people
paying them don't think they are doing it well enough or doing enough of it to
value it. I'm seeing more and more development jobs off-shored or out-sourced
not because that results in better work, but simply because it results in the
same work being done more cheaply. That's great for the companies and
countries that are picking up that work, but it's leaving a swathe of
developers who are "mid-career" who are at risk of becoming unemployed and
whilst they may get new jobs, they may not earn the kind of money they are
used to.

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czbond
I honestly think this will continue. I've seen startups, and Fortune 5,
Fortune 500 doing this. I believe a majority of the development function will
continue to be outsourced. I read CIO magazine regularly, and I see the
development process continue to be outsourced. In addition, India, Russia,
China, Thailand are becoming good development alternatives. The first round of
outsourcing in the early 00's didn't go so well. However, the economics of the
situation, and the increasing skill set lead me to believe it will continue. I
am sure this comment will be flamed, but it's the truth IMHO. (Note: I have a
CompSci degree, done a few tech startups as CTO, so don't shoot the
messenger).

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punkghetto
i'm a total newbie at technology and programming. I'm an accountant, but in
the last year I've developed a passion for computing and learning to code. I
was never exposed to coding or making growing up, everything was a dark hole
or a black box that just worked (most of the time). My answer to your question
is that if you want to 'reach' or 'help' them your energy will mostly be
wasted. You can't install curiosity, motivation, or a lust for knowledge in a
person. They have to want it, there is already enough resources to keep
anyone's head spinning. (at least there is for me)

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AussieCoder
I agree, curiosity and passion are something you either have or you don't. As
an industry we need to improve our capabilities and continuously demonstrate
our value and a subset who are lacking or have outdated skills risks
influencing the perception of the value of the whole.

That said, if we can't make people want to be interested we need to find
another way to reach them.

Some industries require formal certification and demonstration of ongoing
professional development, but IT generally doesn't (although there are pockets
which do). Some of the best developers I have worked with have had no formal
training, however, just passion, curiosity and a willingness to put in the
hours to learn and excluding them would be a mistake. So how do we do it?

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rpietro
not sure whether this will come out the wrong way, but for some people
programming is a career while for others it is and will likely always be a
job.

again, don't get me wrong: the ones who do it as a job might well have other
things that they love and that for them would be a dream come true type of
career. doesn't mean they lack passion or are not really good at something
else, but programming might just not be the thing that they are passionate
about

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AussieCoder
I totally agree with you - for many programmers, programming is just a job.
And I'm not saying that's wrong, but I work with a lot of these developers and
my issue / concern is that they are not actually very good at their job - they
get by only because expectations of IT in their organisations are low,
something which is true in most large corporations and many smaller ones.

When the people paying the IT bills have low expectations to begin with, and
are often disappointed with the applications they are given, IT becomes
devalued.

I'm working with a team at the moment where we have introduced a structured
data access architecture (.NET shop, so Entity Framework underpinning a
repository model) and it has transformed the productivity of the team. They
are no longer writing the same data access code in 5 different places, testing
it 5 times and finding 5 different sets of bugs. They are now writing the code
once, testing it once and re-using it.

The team hadn't even heard of Entity Framework, despite being a dedicated
Microsoft/.NET shop and Entity Framework being around for several years.
Getting them to move from their hand-coded approach, which was what they
learnt for .NET 1.0 was a challenge but, having done it, they wouldn't go back
and love the flexibility and power the new approach gives them.

This isn't a discussion about technologies though. I'm sure that there are
many other teams just like this team and I'm interested in how to get to them
to introduce new technologies and ways of working. The more productive we are
as developers, and the more "delight" the applications we develop are, the
more valued we will all be as an industry.

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czbond
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