Google to make Developers of Us All

Yes another Google post.

I recently returned from the Google I/O conference in San Francisco and one of the reoccurring thoughts that I would have is, "With the help of Google soon everyone will be able to develop."  All the products that they were coming out with from easier APIs to code that all you had to do was fill out a spreadsheet and copy and paste code.  I will admit, at first this bugged me.  I have always taken a thrill in possessing this skill to create something wonderful out of "random" lines of code and now here was Google coming along and allowing for any average schmo to do the same thing without knowing anything.  How could Google do this to all their developers?  This is how they show their thanks is by making developers useless?  I then took a look around me at the men and women I was rubbing shoulders with.  People from all across the globe, people who have written some great software and made huge changes and contributions to the industry.  I spent a night listening to a developer of Skype run a talk where a developer from the Facebook team was in the audience.  I sat at the feet of the whole Android team (literally).  The developers of Wave and every other Google product were all right there.  A man asking a question during one of the talks I later found out was part of the team that adapted Android for the Nook.  These weren't just your mediocre programmers.  I was humbled.   When humbled I believe we learn best as I did there in that room.  These developers weren't offended by Google "taking their job away."  They were singing Google's praises, but why?  It then occurred to me what Google really was replacing.  They weren't taking away all the programmers work, just the low-level grunt work connecting the pipes if you will.  Whereas it was some of this low-level work that I could do and what brought me joy this was not the same for these men and women actually in the industry.  They actually had customers that counted on them to improve their products and to keep pushing the envelope.  It was this low-level work that was slowing them down.  Google was allowing for them to spend more of their time writing the code that matters to the consumer, the parts that are industry changing.  Even after I/O Google continues to make development easier with the release of App Inventor for Android.  This application can either be seen as replacing the programmer skill or allowing for a lower barrier to entry for Android that allows for normal people to transfer to full-out Android development.  Although I was skeptical in the beginning I am now a believer and applaud Google in their efforts to assist developers in their job.  I will continue to wait anxiously for what Google does in the future.