human-centered design - blog.blb.works

Abstract watercolor header in muted slate blue, warm gray, cream, and ochre. Faint grid lines and branching circuit-like paths blend with layered shapes that suggest industrial processes, while fluid pigment blooms soften the precise geometry. The composition is quiet and understated, with generous negative space and no people or text.

Programming: The New Blue Collar

BLB 14, October 2026

In 1986, I argued that by 2050 programming would become the new blue-collar work. The forecast was about more than code. It was about the direction of business, government, the economy, and politics: how competition and institutional power would shape the relationship between people and the technologies they built. That…