"We are experts in nothing, yet we know a great deal about almost anything."
"But most of us are exploited, doing odd jobs for you just because we are the only ones that know how to do it."
"We are not jobless, yet there is no name for what we do. And because of that, our craft hasn't earned any respect."
This is just emotional, self-satisfying bait for unsuccessful freelancers and cheap employees to feel good over. You should not feel good about being a struggling freelancer (I certainly don't!) or a cheap employee - and you should work hard to develop skills that transcend such a state.
You should NOT be reading this garbage and feel part of a "tribe" and get comfortable.
All of you who upvoted: Do better.
"We are experts in nothing, yet we know a great deal about almost anything." to me, seems to imply that you know a lot about a lot of things, and have developed your skills, though have not dived deep enough to be considered expert in some narrow area.
It's the kind of person I've always aspired to be, as I have very wide interests. Also: technologies come and go, which means that, if you're invested too much in a specific niche, you might find yourself "useless" some day.
Be familiar with underlying principles. Those don't go out of style.
No, it doesn't.
Exactly what is "a great deal?" I think one is just starting down the road to being an expert when you begin to get an idea of what you don't know. The current depth of human knowledge is such that a half lifetime of study is required in many fields to become a true expert.
Then again, sometimes, it's better to know less to get started. Knowing the sheer magnitude of what you don't know can be paralyzing.
Getting things done is a valuable thing in itself. A lot of arguably smart people have difficulty with this.
This manifesto implicitly states that you're either an expert, or a person with broad skills. Why can't one be both: an expert with broad skills ?
