So a tweet I made today on Birdsite blew up. Specifically this:

"When engineering is about “solving interesting problems” and never about why these are problems, you get stuff like Uber.”

I think it touched a nerve. But it’s true. Like the whole Jeff Goldblum line in Jurassic Park, developers all preoccupied about whether they could do a thing and not about whether they should.

And this is a huge. fucking. problem.

@sanspoint I think Uber is symptomatic of another, more sinister kind of myopia. The problem Uber solves isn't "how can I solve an interesting problem?" (the tech is a user friendly taxi app, it's...ok?) it's "how can I become the one extracting money from this problem?" People want more taxis, buzz is created around an an app, drivers are underpaid, the business loss leads & investors are sold on pipe dreams, a wave of capital rolls in, repeat until bubble bursts.
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