A Moving N.Y. Times op-ed by Ellen Ullman about how cross-generational knowledge transfer is suffering in the software industry with so many programmers out of work. Read it for her encomium to the "mysterious places, wild people, dreamers and tinkerers" that are the sources of innovation. [Scott Rosenberg's Links & Comment]

I am amazed, after spending almost 20 years in the programming/consulting profession, that this did not occur to me. It's like somebody laid off an entire generation of Sufis.

If you don't know who Ellen Ullman is, she wrote one of the best books I've ever read -- "Close To The Machine."