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Ask HN: Have we screwed ourselves as software engineers?

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Re: Ask HN: Have we screwed ourselves as software engineers?

#311

Post by biorach »

tomc1985 wrote: post #300
biorach wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> God I am sick of these apologetics every time someone expresses skepticism That's a highly obnoxious response to a measured and reasonable comment.

Because it is repeating theme on these boards: someone expresses a nonconventional or old-school way of doing things, and someone else always jumps on with why overcomplicated cloud shit should be the solution to everything. Most businesses are never going to be a Netflix or a TikTok or whatever. Yet their businesspeople are absolutely infected with this mindset. And don't get me wrong, it is a disease and its primar…

> and someone else always jumps on with why overcomplicated cloud shit should be the solution to everything.

I didn't say anything like that. the opposite in fact.

Next time try reading and understanding a comment before going off like an obnoxious jerk

Re: Ask HN: Have we screwed ourselves as software engineers?

#312

Post by deltaonefour »

tabtab wrote: post #305
deltaonefour wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All three are moving away from OOP. Functional components in react. Zero classes in golang or Rust. It's actually quite an obvious paradigm shift. No classes with these languages yet every language prior to this has classes. Yet I don't understand why people still insist on calling go and rust object oriented or why they try to argue this point when there is such an obvious change. I mean sure you can twist the langu…

Functional can be tricky to debug, as the frowned-on "intermediate state" of imperative programming makes for great x-ray examination points during debugging. The backlash against OOP is partly because existing OOP engines are limiting in many languages. Passing, grouping, and custom-scoping of "blocks of code" (BOC) should be more flexible so that we are not forced into hierarchies or spaghetti scoping. We need new…

Imperative and OOP are not the same though.

None of the languages I mentioned are FP. Though FP has benefits and many of the languages or frameworks mentioned above are either moving towards FP or borrowing concepts from FP.

You're not wrong about intermediate state. I shouldn't have emphasized FP here that wasn't my point. An imperative program that is just imperative without OOP or FP tends to be simpler then OOP itself.

Re: Ask HN: Have we screwed ourselves as software engineers?

#313

Post by phkahler »

gfodor wrote: post #183
phkahler wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> If you believe that's all there is to those ideas, maybe you need to step away and think about them for a while. Sure, there's going to be some resume padding happening in larger orgs. But all those ideas solve real problems too. They do solve real problems. The question is whether or not they solve the problem at hand, and if they create other issues in doing so. I was re-decking a back yard bridge with a friend…

I’ve never liked this best-tool-for-the-job mental model with software engineering. A given project has multiple needs, and unlike more physical tools there is a very high marginal cost for each incremental tool you use. So there is a huge balance between many well suited tools or a few but more generalized, less fit tools. This isn’t to say there’s an obvious place where to strike the balance, but the “best tool for…

I agree with you. But dont add a new tool (even a more general one) unless it fills a gap, or has other specific benefits.

Re: Ask HN: Have we screwed ourselves as software engineers?

#314

Post by Bancakes »

graderjs wrote: post #241
Bancakes wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you learn the word 'incumbent' yesterday?

Aaw, so cute. My smart piece threatened you and you want to prove you're smarter than me. Nice try but you failed.... I learn all the time, you should try it. XD

I saw your original post and your cringe edited one. I won't even comment.

Re: Ask HN: Have we screwed ourselves as software engineers?

#315

Post by ggariepy »

Bancakes wrote: post #103
ggariepy wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The purpose of a union is to create a labor cartel which tends to standardize the price of labor above the rate at which the market would likely set it. IP clauses and non-competes are a small part of the issues plaguing our industry. Putting constraints on the labor supply is probably not a good thing; it leads to the market for labor relocating to less union-friendly climes. Ask anyone from Detroit how well that wo…

'Labor market' is a purely American concept. You shouldn't be switching jobs constantly and relocating. It takes a toll on personal life and makes no sense anyway.

I've worked for three different employers and have never left this spare bedroom. Relocate? Where? To my living room? :-)

Re: Ask HN: Have we screwed ourselves as software engineers?

#316

Post by [deleted] »

Bancakes wrote: post #314
graderjs wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aaw, so cute. My smart piece threatened you and you want to prove you're smarter than me. Nice try but you failed.... I learn all the time, you should try it. XD

I saw your original post and your cringe edited one. I won't even comment.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Have we screwed ourselves as software engineers?

#317

Post by b20000 »

you are right, but the problem is that most of us engineers are too caught up in the chasing of the next hot tool or language or busy grinding leetcode and complying with whatever the next ridiculous demand is by hiring companies and their recruiters.

nobody is focusing on the key issues of our industry and what is important and what needs to be changed, to have healthy, productive, respected and comfortable professional careers. to make this happen a shift in focus needs to come about.

Re: Ask HN: Have we screwed ourselves as software engineers?

#318

Post by NateEag »

ushakov wrote: post #144
jokethrowaway wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indie makers famously do just that. Pieter Levels is making millions with PHP and jQuery. I consult primarily in node and react with all sorts of transpilers mess and shitty packers. The stuff of nightmares - we waste so much time making things work - but simplifying the stack will never get traction among the not-anymore-technical principal engineers or even amongst the other developers who need a fancy cv for their…

> Pieter Levels is making millions with PHP and jQuery no, the reason Pieter Levels makes millions is not PHP and jQuery, but because he's also a brilliant sales/marketing/business person

OP didn't say PHP and jQuery were why Pieter Levels is making millions - just that they're tools he's using to do it.

Ergo, they are at least fit for that purpose. They aren't bad enough to prevent him from making millions.

Re: Ask HN: Have we screwed ourselves as software engineers?

#319

Post by ggariepy »

Workaccount2 wrote: post #134
Bancakes wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

'Labor market' is a purely American concept. You shouldn't be switching jobs constantly and relocating. It takes a toll on personal life and makes no sense anyway.

Unless you live in a communist country, you are part of a labor market.

I don't think there are any purely communist economies operating in the world today, and even if there are, there is still a market. It's a badly distorted market that performs poorly, but a market nonetheless. If you have human beings involved, there's a market; it goes with the territory as part of the human condition.

Re: Ask HN: Have we screwed ourselves as software engineers?

#320

Post by ggariepy »

boredumb wrote: post #257
turtledove wrote: post #66

Yes, but not in the way you describe. Software engineers have power right now, we should be unionizing (even if the union is only pushing for things like IP clauses and non competes to be less draconic). Build the union while we are strong so it's there when we are weaker. A union doesn't have to be a huge monstrosity. It can be simple and fight for a few basic standards in the industry.

Everyone just needs to send me $1,000 a month in dues and i'll start sending google and amazon some very strongly worded emails on our behalf.

I'll do it for $950/month!
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