What I was somewhat sloppily referring to was the classical liberal ideas based on writings of Adam Smith (who's mentioned in the article), David Hume, John Locke etc. As opposed to the Marxist view I guess.
And I said it because the article argues somewhat (in)directly that management gets paid well because of position of power and luck, not merit, that free markets don't work, and throws around words like libertarianism, meritocracy etc., but makes no solid economic arguments, it's explained more from a point of populist left ideas based on my reading.
Note that there's more than one competing idea here, and I personally don't necessarily agree with one single theory, but if you're interested in it in general here are some sources off the top of my head:
Adam Smith - The Wealth of Nations [1]
John Locke - Two Treatises of Government[2]
Friedrich Hayek - The Road to Serfdom[3]
david Hume - A Treatise of Human Nature[4]
Austrian school of economics[5]
Chicago school of economics[6]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wealth_of_Nations
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Treatises_of_Government
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_to_Serfdom
[4]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Treatise_of_Human_Nature
[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austrian_School
[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_school_of_economics
EDIT: Need to add at least Friedman I suppose. From here on out you can google classical liberalism, libertarianism, Age of Enlightenment, etc.
And if you want different ideas, of which I guess the author would support some if he'd actually read / cited actual economic theory,
Keynesian economics, Marxian economics, Economic interventionism etc...
Milton Friedman - Capitalism and Freedom[7]
Excellent point, thank you. The changes we've seen in the industry even in the 5 years since I wrote this do suggest a declining relevance of the introverted programmer meme. I admit I'm stuck in a 1980s "we're all social outcasts" mindset which doesn't reflect the present day make-up of this varied industry. However, I think certain aspects of the metaphor remain intact. The work of programmers is introverted. The point was that the mental structures that attract programmers are the same ones that can lead to reductionist views of social, economic, and political matters. I've often marvelled at how easily some of the most brilliant engineers apply their ideas about computer systems to human systems, without the necessary due diligence. I'm not saying they all do this, just that the introversion tendency can explain how it happens.
What I'm bothered about is that he makes a blanket statement about "the programmer". Would've been better to say, Graham was probably introvert, there's where his ideas come from.
Why would "ability to create and inhabit a mental utopia devoid of the complications of external reality is a truly liberating experience" be limited to introvert programmers, like introversion is some kind of super power?
Architects, painters, mathematicians, and many others are just as capable of abstract thought. Most mathematical and physical models could be called "mental utopias". As are financial or economic models for that matter.
No one would claim that because an architect is able to draw a house made of ice cream cones or a physicist come up with a model where frictions is 0 he must be introverted though right?
Why does everything concerned with programming need to be then?
It's similar to claiming that programmers are good at programming because they're white, or male, or fat, or bald...
And people thinking they know everything are common in every field, mechanical engineers, doctors, architects, you can find them wherever you go, this is not limited to software engineering.