Once again, Nicholas Carr is trying to make a living out of doomsaying. The IT industry's glory days are over, software is stabilizing, costs are going down, there's little left to innovate.
Microsoft's move to dividends + their accumulating cash hoard staying rather stagnant could be seen as a sign of the decline of IT. I actually look at it another way: it indicates that capital is no longer the primary factor of production. Knowledge is.
Software today is expensive and solves "old" problems -- problems we've had for 20 to 30 years. We're getting pretty good at nailing them down, though we still have a way to go. What's interesting is that we haven't really tackled the "new" problems. What are the "new" problems? For a glimpse, take a look back in recent history at big fringe ideas that were ahead of their time...
I firmly believe the next empires of IT will take advantage of knowledge as the central resource of an economy. And will catch the rest of the world by surprise.
Thoughts of the day:
- the IT world would be a better place if everyone would take a course on basic Oracle SQL Tuning
- I finally got around to upgrading my Movable Type to try to ward off spam
I have a lot of things to write about piling up, it's just about finding the time to write them. Stay tuned, if you're interested.