Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The next two years of software engineering

addyosmani.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

341–350 of 403 posts

Re: The next two years of software engineering

#341

Post by ikrenji »

burningChrome wrote: post #269
hncoder12345 wrote: post #53

Sometimes I wonder if I made the wrong choice with software development. Even after getting to a senior role, according to this article, you're still expected to get more education and work on side projects outside of work. Am I supposed to want to code all the time? When can I pursue hobbies, a social life, etc.

This also dovetails with his other point: Given how quickly models, tools and frameworks rise and fall, betting your career on a single technology stack is risky. This was something I dealt with a lot when JS frameworks became the newest shiny thing and suddenly the entire industry shifted in a few years from being a front-end developer to being a full stack developer. This happened to a lot of my friends who went al…

frameworks are irrelevant. if someone can work in angular they can pick up react as they go and vice versa, especially if assisted by AI. the problem is hiring practices where resumes are discarded if the keywords don't much...

Re: The next two years of software engineering

#342

Post by immibis »

smeeagain2 wrote: post #323
justin66 wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "going back to school" to learn what I already know pretty damn well already, given that I've been programming since I was 8 It's small consolation if sitting in a classroom is something you truly hate, but the guys who are programming pros before they go into a CS program are very often the ones who do really well and get the most out of it.

[dead]

Did you already understand complexity theory (the most obvious example of this phenomenon) by the time you went to an actual school?

Tinkering is great but (good) school teaches you all the things and not just the things you obviously, and then you don't have any knowledge gaps.

Any fool can probably weld metal but how do you learn to do it properly if you don't learn properly?

Re: The next two years of software engineering

#343

Post by stg22 »

bossyTeacher wrote: post #59
stack_framer wrote: post #51

Funny that he mentions people not pivoting away from COBOL. My neighbors work for a bank, programming in COBOL every day. When I moved in and met them 14 years ago, I wondered how much longer they would be able to keep that up. They're still doing it.

The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent

There is a great deal of death in a language.

Re: The next two years of software engineering

#344

Post by Havoc »

schnitzelstoat wrote: post #161
maciejzj wrote: post #143

TBH, it all feels like a huge gamble at this point. Neither skills, education, institutional ties, nor current employment can guarantee a stable foundation for life. This hits harder depending on how much money, social capital, or debt you accumulated before this volatility began. If you’ve paid off your debts, bought a house, and stabilized your family life, you’re gambling with how comfortable the coming years will…

I felt a lot safer when I was a young grad than now that I have kids to support and I can't just up and move to wherever the best job opportunity is or live off lentils to save money or whatever.

I'm on the flip side of this - not exactly young but no dependants which is making me a little bit less nervous. Seems like the next 20 years will be a wild ride & it doesn't seem optional so lets go I guess

Re: The next two years of software engineering

#345

Post by broochcoach »

sanderjd wrote: post #263

> The flip scenario: AI unlocks massive demand for developers across every industry, not just tech. Healthcare, agriculture, manufacturing, and finance all start embedding software and automation. Rather than replacing developers, AI becomes a force multiplier that spreads development work into domains that never employed coders. We’d see more entry-level roles, just different ones: “AI-native” developers who quickly…

[dead]

Re: The next two years of software engineering

#346

Post by andrekandre »

judahmeek wrote: post #166
torben-friis wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And there's a ton of human incentives here to take shortcuts in the review part. The process almost pushes you to drop your guard: you spend less physical time observing the code while you write, you get huge chunks of code dropped on you, iterations change a lot to keep a mind model, there's FOMO involved about the speed gain you're supposed to get... We're going to see worse review quality just by a mater of UX and…

Yes! It depends on the company, of course, but I think plenty of people are going to fall for the perverse incentives while reviewing AI output for tech debt. The perverse incentives being that tech debt is non-obvious & therefore really easy to avoid responsibility for. Meanwhile, velocity is highly obvious & usually tired directly to personal & team performance metrics. The only way I see to resolve this is strict…

  > enforcement of a comprehensive QA process during both the planning & iteration of an AI-assisted development cycle
and a new bottleneck appears...

(i don't disagree with this take though, qa should be done from start to finish and integral every step of the way)

Re: The next two years of software engineering

#347

Post by hncoder12345 »

stephendause wrote: post #251
hncoder12345 wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a period of time where I really wanted to be exceptional. I spent many hours studying and working on side projects but it just never really clicked. I think I'm decent at what I do for work but more complicated topics (graphics programming, low level memory management, etc.) just seem to not stick, no matter how many hours I put into studying. Sometimes it feels like I'm forcing this career but after this many…

Your story sounds similar to mine. There are some parts of programming at which I know I will never excel. I also don't have time in my life to spends lots of hours outside of work developing my skills. I think it's important to realize that the median software engineer is probably not doing these things either. Maybe the top 10% are? Something like that would be my guess. It's okay to not be in the top 10%!

This is refreshing to read. Sometimes when I come here and look at the posts and comments it seems like lots of people are doing lots of things that are confusing to me. I'm recently coming to terms with being okay about not being able to learn everything that I don't understand and outside of work I've started pursuing non-programming related hobbies which led me to make the comment I did.

Re: The next two years of software engineering

#348

Post by hncoder12345 »

francisofascii wrote: post #179
hncoder12345 wrote: post #53

Sometimes I wonder if I made the wrong choice with software development. Even after getting to a senior role, according to this article, you're still expected to get more education and work on side projects outside of work. Am I supposed to want to code all the time? When can I pursue hobbies, a social life, etc.

>I made the wrong choice with software development. I wonder what the best decision would have been. What job is AI immune and has a stable 40 hour week, no overtime, with decent pay. Teacher? Nursing?

I wasn't thinking AI immune in my comment but it's fair to include it. I wouldn't even mind overtime because that implies pay (in my mind). I'm more so talking about the unpaid time we are expected to put into further education or into side projects.

Re: The next two years of software engineering

#349

Post by bdangubic »

Kilenaitor wrote: post #206
francisofascii wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I made the wrong choice with software development. I wonder what the best decision would have been. What job is AI immune and has a stable 40 hour week, no overtime, with decent pay. Teacher? Nursing?

Neither teachers nor nurses only work 40 hours and no overtime. :') Definitely something that requires social/interpersonal skills though will be the thing that winds up being AI immune. Humans are social creatures so I assume there will always be some need for it.

humans have stopped being social creatures when social media took off

Re: The next two years of software engineering

#350

Post by bdangubic »

hncoder12345 wrote: post #348
francisofascii wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I made the wrong choice with software development. I wonder what the best decision would have been. What job is AI immune and has a stable 40 hour week, no overtime, with decent pay. Teacher? Nursing?

I wasn't thinking AI immune in my comment but it's fair to include it. I wouldn't even mind overtime because that implies pay (in my mind). I'm more so talking about the unpaid time we are expected to put into further education or into side projects.

SWE job always required education. Few made a career knowing one thing (e.g. COBOL) but those days are long gone. I have been SWE for 3 decades and have always had to further my education (including now)
Post reply on HN