My friend Steve Spearman alerted me to this neat little note, in Wired, by Daniel Pink
Almost three years ago, Scott Kirwin was Wired‘s
pissed off programmer ("The New Face of the Silicon Age," issue 12.02).
Tossed from his job and raging against globalization, he had launched
the Information Technology Professionals Association of America to
lobby against offshored work and imported workers. These days, Kirwin
still works with computers. He’s just less pissed: In June, he
shuttered the ITPAA. "I don’t view outsourcing as the big threat it
was," he says. What changed? Well, Kirwin found better work as an
analyst and software architect. And he noticed that the talents that
make him valuable – open-mindedness, a willingness to take risks,
flashes of ingenuity – couldn’t be reduced to a spec sheet and emailed
to Hyderabad. If more Americans develop such abilities, Kirwin
believes, the use of Indian programmers could even improve our economic
outlook. Outsourcing isn’t going away, he says. "But in the end,
America may be stronger for it."
– Daniel H. Pink
