“For the last few years most programmers I know have thought everything has a technical (app-based) solution. But those easy wins are gone now. This is the next trend in tech – upending existing industries by using tech to drive efficiencies.

Start looking for “real stuff” you can improve with tech, rather than just software/apps that’re hard to defend.“

To that end, I often recommend that developers go and find jobs outside of traditional software businesses for a while. If you spend a few years writing code for a publishing house or an oil company you’ll see more of the challenges that affect those businesses that you can apply software to.

If you spend your entire career working in a software company it’s unlikely you’ll realise that these problems exist because (generally speaking) software companies have already realised they’re a problem and addressed them.