Bruce Schneier > Better code needs big-picture thinking [Careers

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The security technologist Bruce Schneier has a warning “What you code affects the world now. Gone are the days when programmers could ignore the social context of what they code, when we could say, ‘The users will just figure it all out.’ Today, programs, apps, and algorithms affect society. Facebook's choices influence democracy. How driverless cars will choose to avoid accidents will affect human lives.” Becoming a good communicator is essential, stresses Schneier. "Explaining technology across interdisciplinary boundaries requires being able to write, speak, to animate a topic, to analogize and synthesize, to summarize and generalize. These are all critical skills. They’re not specific skills, but they are vitally important."