>>>about a year ago Node.Js was enticing a lot of bright young ones...
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>And now Vert.x...
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>FWIW if you look at a profession like medicine, vendors and promoters can't just dream up new stuff and appoint medical gurus to promote it. Vendors have to PROVE their product before it can be inflicted on the public and it's malpractice to use it except in a trial until the proof is in. And then if it turns out to be a bust, it's serious compensation city. I suppose you could say that peoples' lives are more important than IT but actually IT is increasingly important both in healthcare and in every other sphere. IT is going to have to improve its act. If we were smart we professionals would lead that drive. E.g. the JCAHO was founded by practitioners for this purpose after some bad provider stuff happened. But in IT we tend to see the opposite- there are too many IT "gurus" who see benefits in the churn and boom/bust tendencies, flitting from bandwagon to bandwagon gaining kudos and $ merely by being a few steps ahead of the crowd while feasting on vendor flattery and rewards. If a physician did that, his peers would call it malpractice rather than anointing him Professor of Surgery and worshiping. The result is that IT will be controlled by a layer of bureaucracy that earns the big $ while the practitioners are treated as a commodity to be outsourced or parceled in cheapest units. JMHO.
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>>>In our profession it is still possible to earn a good living by selling only your own time. But given the choice of working 5 times as much (partly due to ever rising taxes...) for a Super Sports car above Nissan GT-R and fitting life style I work mostly on things I like (or have time for other actvities - like riding a bike or driving an older 300HP car) so can clearly follow Charles' reasoning. Proof positive that I am one of the vfp-typical penny pinchers...
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>In the mobile market, single highly motivated and imaginative people can earn big $ keeping their own hours. I'm not talking another fart app, I mean something people can use and will want to pay $4.95 for. It's better than the good old FP days because everything is immediately accessible, packaging and distribution costs are negligible and prices are low enough that snap purchase is easy. You only need one good hit and a disciplined mentality and you have your "drop dead" money forever (meaning enough money that you can say "drop dead" to any opportunity rather than being forced to participate because you need the $)

That's the dream of mobile apps. But in fact isn't it only a miniscule percentage of apps that make any money to speak of?