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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?

#31

Post by delecti »

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.

You're talking about something different. In the early 2000s, before modular PSU cables, Dell used non-standard PSU power connector wiring arrangements. The 20-pin mobo power plug coming out of the PSU was wired differently than the ATX standard at the time, and swapping hardware could fry a motherboard.

https://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=339053

Edit: Better source https://superuser.com/questions/905705/atx-dell-psu-to-offic...

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

#32

Post by VirusNewbie »

ilrwbwrkhv wrote: post #29

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,…

I went from a startup to Google in my last job hop. The former had way more coasters. You don’t survive long at google at L5+ if you coast.

Sounds like you’re extrapolating from internet anecdata rather than first hand experience.

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

#33

Post by advael »

I realize it's kind of a game of musical chairs when companies work so hard to shut down various forms of {labor,equality,ethics} activism in tech, but I found myself wondering at the end of this whether there are groups that are active now, and how to find them. Organizing anything is a coordination problem, but organizing in a context where one is opposed by companies who have positioned themselves as bottlenecks to organization and communication for humans in general seems a uniquely difficult task with unique challenges, and while perhaps financial motivation is prevalent, I like to think many technologists can still be motivated by a challenge

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

#34

Post by luzojeda »

lupire wrote: post #27

> I'm looking for work as a senior software engineer. Pairs well with > I don't know how much longer I can comfortably call myself a "technologist"

>a "technologist" ...when this is what being a technologist is today

i think it's pretty unfair to skip the rest of his sentence

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

#35

Post by dghlsakjg »

ilrwbwrkhv wrote: post #29

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,…

> 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.

To be fair, the most talented and ambitious still want nothing to do with big blue. Different reasons, but still.

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

#36

Post by dasil003 »

The idea of tech as a tool of oppression is something that increasingly bothers me. I got into tech because I just liked building stuff with computers, and at the time I naively thought it seemed democratizing. Looking back I think this was largely because of the general public’s cluelessness about computers and the internet, so technically minded people with a little bit of access had a huge amount of power in shaping those early online spaces. I thought the future of tech would reflect the ideas of the builders, but I learned that’s not how it works. If something has potential as an instrument of power, that potential will be developed by those with power. Tech, especially the global internet has proven to have incredible scaling characteristics that can be harnessed for massive profit and control. AI is now promising a similar return in kind for whoever controls it. I’m not sure how to counterbalance this consolidation of power, but I do think it should be our major political project of the next 20 years or things are going to get ugly.

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

#38

Post by SoftTalker »

delecti wrote: post #31
sz4kerto wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You're talking about something different. In the early 2000s, before modular PSU cables, Dell used non-standard PSU power connector wiring arrangements. The 20-pin mobo power plug coming out of the PSU was wired differently than the ATX standard at the time, and swapping hardware could fry a motherboard. https://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=339053 Edit: Better source https://superuser.com/questions/905705…

Nvidia does something similar with their server GPU cards, to prevent people from using cheaper desktop GPUs in servers.

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

#39

Post by [deleted] »

VirusNewbie wrote: post #32
ilrwbwrkhv wrote: post #29

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,…

I went from a startup to Google in my last job hop. The former had way more coasters. You don’t survive long at google at L5+ if you coast. Sounds like you’re extrapolating from internet anecdata rather than first hand experience.

[deleted]

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

#40

Post by hnthrow289570 »

ilrwbwrkhv wrote: post #29

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,…

Coasting is fine in a sane company. Coasting is a sign of competence IMO as long as your work is also getting done and things are fairly estimated. We should get to coast because we practiced enough to be good at our job.

There's way too many jobs where the only reward for finishing your work is more work.

However, I don't think hacker or punk rock culture can make a come back here because there's too large of a pool of people willing to work even for underpaid tech jobs (since it's often a relatively a lot of money for them)

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