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Reflecting on WikiTok

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Re: Reflecting on WikiTok

#41

Post by SR2Z »

throwawayk7h wrote: post #33
Jdfmiller wrote: post #9

This: And with regards to AI taking jobs - it obviously will become a serious problem in future. But being a doomer right now is like lying down in a parking lot waiting to get run over - you're surrendering to a pointless outcome while the rest of the world keeps moving. Great sentiment. I've had a similar experience with LLMs and writing code - helpful when keeping the requests small, and a background in the area i…

This is not what a doomer is. A doomer is not a nihilist. A doomer is someone who recognizes a great threat of impending doom. They may raise the alarm bell in response. If they choose to lie down and wait to get run over, that's a nihilist doomer.

> If they choose to lie down and wait to get run over, that's a nihilist doomer.

So... almost all doomers?

Re: Reflecting on WikiTok

#42

Post by gavmor »

the-chitmonger wrote: post #30

Hey, I'm also a former civil engineer-turned SWE in the NJ/NYC area! Nice to know that there are more of us out there. I already spend hours looking through Wikipedia articles, so when your site dropped I was on it right away. I dodged the AI conversation entirely by getting into a state government position where my job is all but guaranteed by the union.

I've always held a passing curiosity about civil engineering; have you ever seen someone make the reverse switch? Or, is the career of a SWE simply that much more enviable?

Re: Reflecting on WikiTok

#43

Post by strken »

throwawayk7h wrote: post #33
Jdfmiller wrote: post #9

This: And with regards to AI taking jobs - it obviously will become a serious problem in future. But being a doomer right now is like lying down in a parking lot waiting to get run over - you're surrendering to a pointless outcome while the rest of the world keeps moving. Great sentiment. I've had a similar experience with LLMs and writing code - helpful when keeping the requests small, and a background in the area i…

This is not what a doomer is. A doomer is not a nihilist. A doomer is someone who recognizes a great threat of impending doom. They may raise the alarm bell in response. If they choose to lie down and wait to get run over, that's a nihilist doomer.

Fatalist might be a better word choice than nihilist. Nihilism is about whether meaning exists, but a lack of inherent meaning doesn't imply a lack of action. If you choose to just let something happen to you because you believe it's unavoidable then you're a fatalist.

Re: Reflecting on WikiTok

#44

Post by aizk »

gavmor wrote: post #42
the-chitmonger wrote: post #30

Hey, I'm also a former civil engineer-turned SWE in the NJ/NYC area! Nice to know that there are more of us out there. I already spend hours looking through Wikipedia articles, so when your site dropped I was on it right away. I dodged the AI conversation entirely by getting into a state government position where my job is all but guaranteed by the union.

I've always held a passing curiosity about civil engineering; have you ever seen someone make the reverse switch? Or, is the career of a SWE simply that much more enviable?

There are some. If you're married with kids and what you really need is stability above all else it's a decent idea.

But civil has serious issues (very low pay for how high the legal liability is).

If you search for jobs in civil you'll see hundreds of civil engineering firms are desperate for people to hire - it's similar to accounting where there's a mass exodus.

That may be a blog post in and of itself, why that industry is struggling and what that means.

Re: Reflecting on WikiTok

#46

Post by nidnogg »

blueflow wrote: post #10
pajamasam wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not like we're doing very well with maintenance and tech debt in any case. AI might be able to help with that in the future.

Look at your tech stack, go down until you come to the level where things "just work". This is where the maintained software begins. The stuff you fill your docker base images with.

Are you really assuming most of your docker base images won't be AI generated spit in a few months from now? All maintainers are catching on.

Re: Reflecting on WikiTok

#47

Post by the-chitmonger »

gavmor wrote: post #42
the-chitmonger wrote: post #30

Hey, I'm also a former civil engineer-turned SWE in the NJ/NYC area! Nice to know that there are more of us out there. I already spend hours looking through Wikipedia articles, so when your site dropped I was on it right away. I dodged the AI conversation entirely by getting into a state government position where my job is all but guaranteed by the union.

I've always held a passing curiosity about civil engineering; have you ever seen someone make the reverse switch? Or, is the career of a SWE simply that much more enviable?

In addition to what the other commenter said, my main gripe with it was that it felt a tad bit racially discriminatory (only speaking from my own experience). I'm not a white man, and I worked in towns with predominantly white populations. I received a lot of undue complaints, and I ended up getting shunted to night shift work before I made the switch.

Also the pay as a civil engineer with 3 years of experience was roughly half what I ended up making my first year as a software engineer.

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