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Ask HN: Is back end dev generally easier than front end?

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Re: Ask HN: Is back end dev generally easier than front end?

#11
There is a bias in software: if you can see it visually it’s worth less.

That bias has generally resulted in lower compensation for front end work irrespective of inherent technical challenges. The result of that bias impacts hiring and trust which then dictate approach and implementation.

Re: Ask HN: Is back end dev generally easier than front end?

#13
I would suggest that you try out for yourself. Try to follow a Django tutorial from beginning to the end, and if that's something you might enjoy doing.

Backend work is not "easier" than frontend, it's a different world where you have to learn to deal with other type of problems.

But I'm surprised that you think your job pool is becoming smaller, there is multiple magnitudes way more demand for frontend work now than in 2007. And it doesn't take much to learn about responsive layouts and React/Vue/whatever if you already have 14 years of experience working on frontend projects. Have you considered looking for a developer group with people who could help you get started with npm and other more modern tools? Nowadays you can get access to a lot of support by joining a Discord server, people are generally supportive and can ease your learning.

Re: Ask HN: Is back end dev generally easier than front end?

#14

You can't learn things? I don't think "since 2007" is that long to be honest. I'm a bit confused how you can't be "good at ES6" in a way where you wouldn't struggle with gradual advancements in every other programming language. Maybe you just don't like frontend development, and would prefer backend, but I wouldn't say one is easier than the other. Backend development can go through churn and change and unreliability…

at some point, one becomes exhausted from learning things that are so short lived that they're effectively useless the next year.

There's a fatigue in knowing that what you're working hard to master today will be laughed at tomorrow, it makes you cynical, or at least tired..

It's not like that with most things in the world, learn math, the new stuff will only gradually creep in, the foundational concepts and ideas don't shift overnight. Even medicine, with constant advantages are not replacing huge amounts of ideas every year, only adjusting and adding some.

Learn C, and you're good to go for the next 200 years. Learn JavaScript, probably too. Learn React or Angular or whatever, and you'll have, if you're lucky the next two years to polish and make use of that knowledge before it goes out..

Don't get me wrong, advancement is good, but most of the frontend stuff we see coming and going is just grind, not advancement.

Re: Ask HN: Is back end dev generally easier than front end?

#15
Depends on the backend I guess.

It can be very easy: Call an API/ORM, validate, format then return a JSON.

As everything, it can also be more complex: SQL optimisation, DB schema migrations and rollbacks (liquibase is a good start), micro-services, CQRS, DDD, kafka, monitoring, observability etc..

Both frontend and backend can be easy or hard.

Re: Ask HN: Is back end dev generally easier than front end?

#17
I think that backend can feel less chaotic. It has its complexities but my personal opinion is that the things you use are less prone to deprecation. Ways of doing things change and that can require you to learn new things. Some examples of change are:

A few years ago I had never heard of Kubernetes, but now it’s one of the most in demand things. Cloud formation was the cool kid at one point and then it changed to terraform and to a lesser degree cloud formation SDK

But that still feels more stable to me than what people deal with on the front end where people can’t even agree on a framework to use (how many are there now for JavaScript?) lol

Re: Ask HN: Is back end dev generally easier than front end?

#18
While frontend always deals with the visual aspect of stuff, backend can mean different things to different people.

For some cases, backend is simply to load an object from a DB, convert to JSON and send it the client.

But backend can also mean "provide a list of movie recommendations against what user has already seen and convert that list to JSON".

Re: Ask HN: Is back end dev generally easier than front end?

#19
I've tried native mobile dev, web frontend and backend dev. The nuance of frontend dev is that you need to pack a lot of things into one process, so it requires more sophisticated coding skills. reactive patterns or stream based approach is a good-to-go knowledge to have. backend is easier to code, however the nuance is to split and scale it once you getting more traffic, proper configurations, dependency management, deployment etc. based on my subjective perspective obviously, there are far more things to consider. in general, do what you love ^_^

Re: Ask HN: Is back end dev generally easier than front end?

#20
Definitely backend easier than frontend. On backend you just write code and only machines interact with that. On frontend you are building interfaces that are accessed by thousands of different devices with different screens, different components and different users which may require different accesibility options.
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