we produce nothing of intrinsic value
Idk about that. You could say the same about a farmer or a banker or a teacher etc.
Absolutely not. None of these professionals are ever working on superfluous projects of unknown worth to the society. In fact, their worth to the society is immediate and totally tangible: you couldn’t eat without the farmer’s work, you wouldn’t have a house without the banker, and you would be dumb without the teacher.
However for most software projects, you would have a hard time to define their positive contribution to the society. Not saying useful and positive software doesn’t exists : there are plenty of those. But they are a visible minority in a sea of unknown, buggy, driven by bankable MVPs rather than useful and well crafted user centered software.
"Wouldn't have a house without the banker". In some societies this is/was called usury - the opposite of intrinsic value. Banks leech value instead of creating any.
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Absolutely not. None of these professionals are ever working on superfluous projects of unknown worth to the society. In fact, their worth to the society is immediate and totally tangible: you couldn’t eat without the farmer’s work, you wouldn’t have a house without the banker, and you would be dumb without the teacher.
However for most software projects, you would have a hard time to define their positive contribution to the society. Not saying useful and positive software doesn’t exists : there are plenty of those. But they are a visible minority in a sea of unknown, buggy, driven by bankable MVPs rather than useful and well crafted user centered software.
"Wouldn't have a house without the banker". In some societies this is/was called usury - the opposite of intrinsic value. Banks leech value instead of creating any.