Peopleware:
Somewhat of an exaggeration, of course -- applying, as opposed to inventing, high technology does not make one not in high technology. And since all kinds of work rely chiefly on human communications, it's still a useful distinguisher to say you're in, roughly, high-tech. But screw all that, the point is a good one and too often ignored; thus, I quote it.
The High-Tech Illusion: the widely held conviction among people who deal with any aspect of new technology (as who of us does not?) that they are in an intrinsically high-tech business...
Just between us, they usually aren't. The researchers who made the fundamental breakthroughs in those area are in a high-tech business. The rest of us are appliers of their work...
Because we go about this work in teams and projects and other tightly knit working groups, we are mostly in the human communication business. Our successes stem from
good human interactions by all participants in the effort, and our failures stem from poor human interactions.
Somewhat of an exaggeration, of course -- applying, as opposed to inventing, high technology does not make one not in high technology. And since all kinds of work rely chiefly on human communications, it's still a useful distinguisher to say you're in, roughly, high-tech. But screw all that, the point is a good one and too often ignored; thus, I quote it.