There is a huge layer of people between Steve Jobs and the engineers you missed. For one example, UX designers (not the art side of things, the technical "evidence based" side of design...usability studies, statistics, etc...).

However you are correct that a coder, whose only job is to take a requirement sheet (compiled by someone else who met with the designers, customers, etc..) and code it, probably doesn't need a liberal arts education. Is that the majority of coding jobs though?

I would think that the job market has a lot more places open for people that are a bit more well rounded. Like, take a well educated guess based on the current usability best practices of an interface, present it to a client, code it, return to the client, deal with criticism, be willing to compromise your design in a bad way to make a customer happy, etc...

I'll have to look that up sometime: total 'jack of all trades' type coding jobs vs 'hamster in a wheel' type coding jobs at the huge companies (MS, Oracle, etc...) I'm making the assumption that you will find a lot more job opportunities being a jack of all trades type person. I could be wrong.

Very true. And it needs to be said more often.

There seems to be another side to technocrats: the assumption that because their subject matter in school and later in work is difficult for most people to master, that any subject that is perceived as easier to master is a subject that they are qualified to discuss intelligently or comment on.

For example, take every Slashdot discussion on the Humanities. Or...sadly enough most discussions about things like AGW. "I can write kernel code so of course I'm smart enough to figure out why all the climate scientists are wrong...." etc...

Every time you come up with an example situation, replace same-sex with black. Does it still feel right to say "legally compel them to bake a cake depicting a black couple is forcing my values on them"? No, it doesn't. Your right to swing your first ends at the tip of my nose. In other words, your right to refuse to bake a cake ends when my nose happens to a be a legally protected attribute, like race or religion.

The tricky thing here, is not all states legally recognize sexual orientation as a protected class. But that is rapidly changing. People not recognizing that sexual orientation should be fully protected just like race/religion, will find themselves on the wrong side of history in short order.

Hansen ventures into Al Gore hyperbole levels when he's talking to the media. However, his science is sound as far as I can tell. I have yet to come across any serious critic of Hansen's scientific papers from a distinguished scientist in the same field.

Is that your interpretation of those results, or the scientists?

Every time I look one of these "I read the study and it is clear to me that the majority of climate scientists are wrong" slashdot posts, I find that there is a good scientific explanation for how the data still fits into the prevailing AGW theories.

AGW concerns are not about the change, but the rate of change.

For instance, if the sea level rise predications are accurate, then re-locating 40% of the planets people in 100 years is going to be extremely expensive. Way WAY more expensive than using the next 25 years moving to renewable energy.

If what you say is true, then it seems like the solution would be better maintenance of voter registration databases. Why do most conservatives still think voter ID is the solution when...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2014/10/24/could-non-citizens-decide-the-november-election/

"We also find that one of the favorite policies advocated by conservatives to prevent voter fraud appears strikingly ineffective. Nearly three quarters of the non-citizens who indicated they were asked to provide photo identification at the polls claimed to have subsequently voted." ...while countries like Australia, who require all citizens to vote or they get fined, do not require voter ID.

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers"
"640K ought to be enough for anybody."
"...we do not have the technology to do it to the extent that the manufacture will be willing to except the liability in the event of an accident. "

Famous words and maybe some soon to be (20 years) famous words.

"no longer creating new, higher-paying jobs to replace those that were automated away" Well we aren't replacing high paying manufacturing jobs with high paying manufacturing jobs, but we sure are creating new high paying 'knowledge worker' type jobs all the time. However, I have no idea if the rate of knowledge worker job creation is keeping pace with the decline in manufacturing jobs. I wish it were easier for the layperson to search for things of that nature without having to wade through dozens of biased/politically motivated 'articles'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5V0vL3nnHY

The public knew in a generic sort of way that they were bad for your health. But they didn't know specifics. Or how bad.

For instance, doctors did not begin telling pregnant women that smoking was bad for the baby until much later. 70's? I forget the exact timing.

So electric companies should require a monthly 'hook up fee' separate from the 'use fee'. Times change.

And I am not sure why this (increased solar use) is so technically/economically troubling for slashdotters to figure out. There are numerous examples of countries with much higher solar/renewable use.

I wonder if younger Republican doctors, if polled about Obamacare, would have similar positive numbers like younger tech savy Republicans have concerning net neutrality?

We should move past the burger flipper analogy, because this flipper makes 250,000+ a year:) https://fb101.com/2014/03/gordon-ramsay-burgr-welcomes-new-executive-chef/

Besides that, I don't think many places actually flip burgers. I know from a summer's worth of experience at age 15 that McDonalds cooks burgers in basically a big press. Cooking on both sides for speed.

"it's why we are being paid more than burger flippers." So that would translate to: "it's why we are being paid more than burger pressers." But that doesn't have the same ring to it.

Maybe something like "it's why we are being paid more than Walmart greeters" is more accurate ;)

Or another Scifi outcome - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forever_Peace