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Do I Regret Being 'Just' a Software Engineer?

jacky.wtf

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Re: Do I Regret Being 'Just' a Software Engineer?

#21

Post by tayo42 »

i think this is expecting to much from corporate america. i dont think these problems are unique to tech companies. maybe i missed the point, the post kind of went all over the place at times

Are we selling our selves and authenticity to companies? i guess in a way, but we try to get as much as we can out of companies too

As far as separating your self from tech and being technologist. I think its like music, the pop stuff sucks and is mass produced. tech that used to be cool is mass produced, im sure there is cool stuff out there if you put the work into finding it. like underground music. i think trying to label your self is a mistake in general.

Re: Do I Regret Being 'Just' a Software Engineer?

#22

Post by jappgar »

ryandrake wrote: post #11
jackyalcine wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah. I only hesitate when we see people more eager to use things to exacerbate the harms of the world using technology. It sucks because we, as an industry, seem to only focus on the history of business gains and not on the sociological impact of said gains (the introduction of the smartphone and how that played into how people connect - or even what _was_ the first smartphone).

I think of worthwhile software projects as stools with three legs: The business opportunity, the interesting technical problem, and the social/ethical issues. They all need to be good in order to have an acceptable product, IMO. Unfortunately, whenever you read an article about a new technology or read an interview of a founder or something, they spend all their time talking about the first two, and either ignore or…

very few people can afford to be ethical.

it's like Joe Rogan trashing factory farms and bragging about only eating wild elk be killed with his bare hands on his private game preserve.

writing software for an oil company doesn't make you evil it makes you like everyone else. not particularly helpful nor particularly harmful

Re: Do I Regret Being 'Just' a Software Engineer?

#23

Post by sz4kerto »

denton-scratch wrote: post #20

> get a Dell PC, ones I've read online that were serviceable When I "repaired" a Dell PC, I destroyed the machine. Dell power-supplies looked like standard PC power supplies; they connected to the motherboard using the same Molex plug. But Dell's Molex connector wasn't wired the same as normal ones. Dell power supplies only worked with Dell motherboards, and vice-versa. Things may have changed, but that experience bl…

You never ever swap cables between PSUs. It's not a Dell thing - you must use the cables that ship with the PSU. Many people have fried their mainboard like you.

Re: Do I Regret Being 'Just' a Software Engineer?

#24

Post by rjbwork »

bluefirebrand wrote: post #13
ryandrake wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think of worthwhile software projects as stools with three legs: The business opportunity, the interesting technical problem, and the social/ethical issues. They all need to be good in order to have an acceptable product, IMO. Unfortunately, whenever you read an article about a new technology or read an interview of a founder or something, they spend all their time talking about the first two, and either ignore or…

I think a lot of it stems from a misguided sort of "yes I'm inventing the torment nexus, but it will never be used on me , because I'm the inventor" Or perhaps "If it isn't me inventing the torment nexus, then someone else will" Either way, I wish people cared more about how their inventions would be used

Nature of the system. The incentives are in place that you can either wallow in the torment nexus with everyone else, or try to invent it and get rich and escape to some little imagined slice of paradise. The world, and especially the USA, is no longer about trying to make things better and solve real actual problems - it's about trying to accumulate enough capital such you can personally opt out of the problems entirely.

Re: Do I Regret Being 'Just' a Software Engineer?

#25

Post by PartiallyTyped »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #9
JSDevOps wrote: post #3

Do what everyone else does. Get into craft beer or coffee as a hobby and slip into a deep depression. It’s well documented.

I think woodworking is also a popular alternative, especially if you've always felt like ten fingers was too many.

I have talked about this with people, in this forum.

Re: Do I Regret Being 'Just' a Software Engineer?

#26

Post by [deleted] »

sz4kerto wrote: post #23
denton-scratch wrote: post #20

> get a Dell PC, ones I've read online that were serviceable When I "repaired" a Dell PC, I destroyed the machine. Dell power-supplies looked like standard PC power supplies; they connected to the motherboard using the same Molex plug. But Dell's Molex connector wasn't wired the same as normal ones. Dell power supplies only worked with Dell motherboards, and vice-versa. Things may have changed, but that experience bl…

You never ever swap cables between PSUs. It's not a Dell thing - you must use the cables that ship with the PSU. Many people have fried their mainboard like you.

[deleted]

Re: Do I Regret Being 'Just' a Software Engineer?

#28

Post by vundercind »

JSDevOps wrote: post #3

Do what everyone else does. Get into craft beer or coffee as a hobby and slip into a deep depression. It’s well documented.

Prozac and weed/psychedelics also a well-worn path.

Not necessarily exclusive from the other options in sibling posts.

Re: Do I Regret Being 'Just' a Software Engineer?

#29

Post by ilrwbwrkhv »

I think a big reason why a lot of people in tech feel like this is because tech has been reduced to getting a job and optimizing for total compensation.

If you look at employees at Google, you can see that they are there to coast. Intelligent, sharp folks, reduced to mere optimizing for compensation while tweaking an algorithm here and there.

Instead what devs need to do especially those who are new to the industry, is to think like hackers of yore. Have total disdain of big tech and organizations.

I remember early 2000s and if you asked anyone who was a good hacker if they want to join IBM they would laugh in your face.

That culture needs to return. Where is the Napster of this era? That would give people the fulfillment they want and make them feel useful. A simple way of doing this is to take any popular piece of software and think what the "out there" version will look like and start building it.

Maybe punk rock and the hacker culture both need to make a comeback into the mainstream, otherwise FAANG and Leetcode will eat the soul of tech.

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