Ben thinks we might still not be connecting with the core issue.

Hi Chris and Mike,

Thanks for your candor and sensitivity in Coder Radio 432. I enjoy the show and have a lot of fun listening to you guys. However, I worry that some of the folks who wrote in last week might still feel that you're not addressing their feedback.

I work for an enterprise software company in a multi-billion-dollar market with fewer than five major players. Due to NDAs, non-compete clauses, proprietary tech, and gentlemen's agreements not to poach between vendors and customers, it's pretty challenging for devs to find new jobs where they have relevant domain knowledge. Things are even bleaker for the QA testers, technical support reps, technical writers, project managers, and others whose experience is less marketable outside of our immediate industry.

I understand you were trying to share the perspective of a business owner in relation to the Apple story, but--respectfully--the perspective of business owners is literally the law in most places, and we have to hear it constantly in our staff meetings, on our TVs, and in the terms of our employment.

My boss can fire me whenever they like, for any reason, and they can collude with other huge corporations to limit our opportunities if we quit. But I can't make them bargain collectively, take them to court, or really do anything other than individual arbitration, and good luck with that. I hope you can forgive me if I'm a little exhausted by being asked to see things from a business owner's point of view.

On a lighter note, one of our younger devs recently made a comment about how outdated parts of our iOS codebase were. His words, and I quote: "I mean, this whole part of the app is still in Objective-C..."

Thanks for reading and for adding a few smiles to my commute each week.

Cheers,
Ben