I would say, although it can be easily argued I don't the life long experience needed to make this conclusion, that Programmers tend to overestimate the impact in the long term.
Although, the first clause, which you wrote, may also be applied in a separate but true context.
Again, just my humble opinion from empirical evidence of articles/blogs/past-technologies and logical deduction.
Ah. Now that you mention it, the quote in the context of technology in general makes much more sense. Seeing as new web and programming technologies are created every day, it would be hard to fit everything into those categories, but physical technologies are much different because in order for someone like me to see them, they have gone through lots of stages of refinement and in most cases the idea doesn't get far enough for me to see it. Web apps, however, are relatively easy to make (compared to designing, creating, and then mass producing your new toothpaste dispensing toothbrush).
This quote isn't mine. I forget where I heard about it the other day, but apparently it was originally stated by Roy Amara, and is sometimes referred to as Amara's Law. Though it wasn't originally about programmers, just an inclusive "We."
I would say, although it can be easily argued I don't the life long experience needed to make this conclusion, that Programmers tend to overestimate the impact in the long term.
Although, the first clause, which you wrote, may also be applied in a separate but true context.
Again, just my humble opinion from empirical evidence of articles/blogs/past-technologies and logical deduction.