Code is Mightier Than the Sword

Leveraging Software Amid the Growing

Scarcity of Software Developers

About MeTony Erskine

Founder & Principal Engineer at Sharptop Co.

Email: tony@sharptop.co

Twitter: @tony_erskine

Software is Eating the World● Marc Andresseen, WSJ, August 2011

● “Eating the World”: a general-purpose technology impacting the world in a deeply

transformative way

○ electricity

○ steam power

○ precision clocks

○ written language

○ token currencies

○ iron metallurgy

○ agriculture

○ software

Soft Technologies

● Written Language

● Token Currency

Limited Resources

● Energy

Analogous Concepts

Retail

Entertainment

Photography

Marketing

Relationships

Transportation and Travel

Education

Knowledge

Stages of “Eating” an Industry (Auto Industry)1. Software Improves Production

Supply Chain and Office Automation

2. Software Improves the Product

Tire Pressure Monitors

3. Software Enhances the Product

Parking Computers

4. Software Eats the Product

Driverless Cars

Software-Eating Trends● Democratization: Software is eating gatekeepers

Is your business a gatekeeper?

● Aristocratization: Software is eating jobs and businesses

○ Dukes: Apple, Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, etc

○ Knights: Tomorrow’s Startups

○ Land-Owning Gentry Developer-Employing Gentry

■ Mainstream Business

■ Workers Empowered by Software

○ Serfs: Workers Displaced by Software

Developeronomics“The one absolutely solid place to store your capital today — if you know how to do it

– is in software developers’ wallets.” -- Venkatesh Rao

Businesses that refuse to recognize the leverage provided by software development will

be marginalized and eventually eaten.

Scarcity● Now: 559,321 open software development jobs

○ Economic Cost: $165 billion to $2.3 trillion

● By 2020: one million open software development jobs

○ Economic Cost: $294 billion to $4 trillion

Software Leverage For Business1. How do we place our deep domain expertise on the effort arm of a software lever?

2. How do we keep that lever from breaking?

“Bill Ford said recently that when he was growing up he used to worry about making

more cars. Now he worries—what if we only made more cars? Just making more cars is

not our future.” -- Venkatesh Prasad, senior technical leader at Ford

Software Leverage For Developer1. How can I become a 10Xer?

2. How can I avoid becoming a commodity?

“Nobody likes being a commodity in a meat market, even as a highly valued 10x prime

cut.” -- Venkatesh Rao

Questions?

Thank You!

Sources● Why Software Is Eating The World

● A New Soft Technology

● The Rise of Developeronomics

● What is a 10Xer?

● Every Company is a Software Company