Etsy CTO: We Need Software Engineers, Not Developers
thenewstack.io
Etsy CTO: We Need Software Engineers, Not Developers
1–10 of 160 posts
Re: Etsy CTO: We Need Software Engineers, Not Developers
#2In the paragraph on "Engineering vs. Development" I read what engineering is
"Engineering, as a discipline and as an activity, is multi-disciplinary. It’s just messy. And that’s actually the best part of engineering. It’s not about everyone knowing everything. It’s about paying attention to the shared, mutual understanding. "
But the author doesn't contrast that with what development is. I used the words interchangeably like film vs movie.
Re: Etsy CTO: We Need Software Engineers, Not Developers
#3More I see cross-engineer that do backend to fronend and more I see problem. There is no way a database guru can create a super nice UI with CSS and JavaScript. Same thing for an expert in JavaScript and web cannot be also an expert in AI, database and xyz stuff. I am all about having people touching a little bit of everything, but at the end, everyone has an expertise and they should do 80% of their time there.
Multi-disciplinary is over preached and create average quality across a system instead of having best practices and efficient development everywhere.
Re: Etsy CTO: We Need Software Engineers, Not Developers
#4More I see cross-engineer that do backend to fronend and more I see problem. There is no way a database guru can create a super nice UI with CSS and JavaScript. Same thing for an expert in JavaScript and web cannot be also an expert in AI, database and xyz stuff. I am all about having people touching a little bit of everything, but at the end, everyone has an expertise and they should do 80% of their time there. Mult…
Agree. I keep seeing job postings requiring (combined roles):
* Must do backend
* Must do frontend
* Must do devops
* Must do database schemas like a wizard
* Must know all of AWS inside and out
* Do you like customer support? You'll be doing customer support.
* You'll be doing marketing disguised as engineering blog posts.
Completely unrealistic.
Re: Etsy CTO: We Need Software Engineers, Not Developers
#5More I see cross-engineer that do backend to fronend and more I see problem. There is no way a database guru can create a super nice UI with CSS and JavaScript. Same thing for an expert in JavaScript and web cannot be also an expert in AI, database and xyz stuff. I am all about having people touching a little bit of everything, but at the end, everyone has an expertise and they should do 80% of their time there. Mult…
"Specialization is for insects."
-Robert A. Heinlein
Re: Etsy CTO: We Need Software Engineers, Not Developers
#6More I see cross-engineer that do backend to fronend and more I see problem. There is no way a database guru can create a super nice UI with CSS and JavaScript. Same thing for an expert in JavaScript and web cannot be also an expert in AI, database and xyz stuff. I am all about having people touching a little bit of everything, but at the end, everyone has an expertise and they should do 80% of their time there. Mult…
"Specialization is for insects." -Robert A. Heinlein
Much better to suck at everything equally. I have so many hours a week. I only get paid for 40 of them.
Re: Etsy CTO: We Need Software Engineers, Not Developers
#7More I see cross-engineer that do backend to fronend and more I see problem. There is no way a database guru can create a super nice UI with CSS and JavaScript. Same thing for an expert in JavaScript and web cannot be also an expert in AI, database and xyz stuff. I am all about having people touching a little bit of everything, but at the end, everyone has an expertise and they should do 80% of their time there. Mult…
Agree. I keep seeing job postings requiring (combined roles): * Must do backend * Must do frontend * Must do devops * Must do database schemas like a wizard * Must know all of AWS inside and out * Do you like customer support? You'll be doing customer support. * You'll be doing marketing disguised as engineering blog posts. Completely unrealistic.
When I see DevOps called out I know that they expect 50% more work for free out of employees.
Companies of course will deny it and imply that you're only working that much more as you are too stupid to write code without bugs and not doing enough automation.
I guess we will see if Etsy's site changes much over the next year (maybe they have been doing that for a while now) or if it remains stagnant as no one wants to change anything.
Re: Etsy CTO: We Need Software Engineers, Not Developers
#8I'm not a regular on Hacker News, but thought my tweet would be worthy here too:
Based on our analysis of LinkedIn, there are 1.7 developers for each SW engineer. Raw data here: bit.ly/1QOobbN
Re: Etsy CTO: We Need Software Engineers, Not Developers
#9I've always thought of it as:
An engineer engineers solutions, frequently from scratch or very small pieces.
A developer develops solutions, often from larger pieces, focusing on implementing them to solve business needs.
It's subtle but I think there is some differentiation. I think the vast majority of companies only require developers, or mostly developers, including Etsy.. because let's be honest what is Etsy doing that hasn't been done before?
Re: Etsy CTO: We Need Software Engineers, Not Developers
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agree. I keep seeing job postings requiring (combined roles): * Must do backend * Must do frontend * Must do devops * Must do database schemas like a wizard * Must know all of AWS inside and out * Do you like customer support? You'll be doing customer support. * You'll be doing marketing disguised as engineering blog posts. Completely unrealistic.
When I see DevOps called out I know that they expect 50% more work for free out of employees. Companies of course will deny it and imply that you're only working that much more as you are too stupid to write code without bugs and not doing enough automation. I guess we will see if Etsy's site changes much over the next year (maybe they have been doing that for a while now) or if it remains stagnant as no one wants to…
[deleted]