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Now might be the best time to learn software development

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Re: Now might be the best time to learn software development

#81

Post by AdieuToLogic »

ameliaquining wrote: post #23
ako wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And compared to what we had before SQL, it is much easier to use, and a lot more people are able to use it.

Is that really because of the English-esque syntax, rather than because it was a step forward in semantic expressivity? If SQL looked like, say, C#'s LINQ method syntax, would it really be harder to use?

Before SQL became an industry standard, many programs which required a persistent store used things like ISAM[0], VISAM (a variant of ISAM[0]), or proprietary B-Tree libraries.

None of these had "semantic expressivity" as their strength.

> If SQL looked like, say, C#'s LINQ method syntax, would it really be harder to use?

Yes.

0 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISAM

Re: Now might be the best time to learn software development

#82

Post by lupire »

dijksterhuis wrote: post #75
bitpush wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the current state, yes. But that is also an opportunity, isn't it? When online flight bookings came about, travel agents were displaced. The solution isn't "let's stop online flight bookings sites and protect travel agents" because that's an inefficient system

Why does every system need to be efficient?

Sorry to be that guy, but would to prefer if your computer and phone each cost $5000?

Re: Now might be the best time to learn software development

#83

Post by kjkjadksj »

munificent wrote: post #42
bitpush wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bravo. This is the exact sentiment I have, but you expressed in a way that I could never have. Most people miss the fact that technical improvements increases the pie in a way that was not possible before. When digital cameras became popular, everybody become a photographer. That only made the world better, and we got soo many more good photographers. Same with YouTube & creativity. And same with coding & LLMs. World…

> That only made the world better, and we got soo many more good photographers. I disagree with the "only" part here. Imagine a distribution curve of photos with shitty photos on the left and masterpieces on the right and the height at the curve is how many photos there are to be seen at that quality. The digital camera transition massively increased the height of the curve at all points. And thanks to things like be…

It affects even the competent photographer. How many times do you see that photographer with all the gear sit in front of a literal statue and fire off a 30 shot burst in 2 seconds? I don’t envy these pro photo editors either today in sports. I wonder how many shots they have to go through per touchdown from all the photographers at the end zone firing a burst until everyone stands up and throws the ball back at the ref? After a certain point you probably have to just close your eyes and pick one of the shots that looks almost identical to another 400. Not a job for analysis paralysis people. I guess it sure beats having to wait for the slide film to develop.

Re: Now might be the best time to learn software development

#84

Post by NoPicklez »

My take just purely based on the title, I'm in the security space not a developer but I did study it during my degree.

I would say that when the fundamentals are easier to learn it becomes a great time to learn anything. I remember spending so much of my degree during software development trying to fix bugs and have things explained by trawling through online forums like many of us have. Looking for different ways of having concepts explained to me and how to apply them.

LLM's give us a fairly powerful tool to act as a sort of tutor in asking questions, feedback on code blocks, understanding concepts, where my code went wrong etc. Asking it all of the dumb questions we go trawling for.

But I can't speak to how this translates when you're a more intermediate developer.

Re: Now might be the best time to learn software development

#85

Post by kjkjadksj »

thangalin wrote: post #49
dijksterhuis wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That only made the world better Did it? people now stand around on dance floors taking photos and videos of themselves instead of getting on dancing and enjoying the music. to the point where clubs put stickers on phones to stop people from doing it. people taking their phone out and videoing / photographing something awful happening, instead of doing something helpful. people travel to remote areas where the popul…

> people now stand around on dance floors taking photos and videos of themselves instead of getting on dancing and enjoying the music. to the point where clubs put stickers on phones to stop people from doing it. There are other types of dances where dancers are far more interested in the dance than selfies: Lindy Hop, Blues, Balboa, Tango, Waltz, Jive, Zouk, Contra, and West Coast Swing to name a few. Here are video…

That sort of dancing is basically a sport. You have to learn it, you have to get good at it after you learned it, and it is cardio after all. I think op was talking more about what you see in the edm scene these days. Where basically people aren’t there to dance like the old days or sing along like other genres, they are there to see a certain DJ and then they will post clips from the entire set on their instagram story. And they can do this because the dancing they are doing at the edm show is super passive kind of dancing where you are just swaying a little so you can hold the phone stably at the same time. If you were dancing like how they’d dance at the edm concerts in the 90s all rolling on molly it would be like your blues swing where its just too physical to do anything but rave around flinging your arms all around shirtless and sweaty.

Re: Now might be the best time to learn software development

#86

Post by vincenthwt »

rr808 wrote: post #79

The management at my corporate job literally say in our townhalls that they expect AI to increase productivity and reduce costs. Makes logical sense to me, the glory days of high wages are over.

Are you talking about the high wages of software engineers or management? Makes sense to me— the glory days of high management and CEO salaries are over.

Re: Now might be the best time to learn software development

#87

Post by komali2 »

dijksterhuis wrote: post #75
bitpush wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the current state, yes. But that is also an opportunity, isn't it? When online flight bookings came about, travel agents were displaced. The solution isn't "let's stop online flight bookings sites and protect travel agents" because that's an inefficient system

Why does every system need to be efficient?

Under capitalism, because greater margins. Under not-capitalism, so as to free up resources and labor for other things or just increase available downtime for people.

Re: Now might be the best time to learn software development

#88

Post by kjkjadksj »

pipes wrote: post #48
bitpush wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bravo. This is the exact sentiment I have, but you expressed in a way that I could never have. Most people miss the fact that technical improvements increases the pie in a way that was not possible before. When digital cameras became popular, everybody become a photographer. That only made the world better, and we got soo many more good photographers. Same with YouTube & creativity. And same with coding & LLMs. World…

I thought photographers don't get paid well anymore due market saturation and few skills required to get a good photo?

It is still as hard as its been to get a good photo. They had full auto film cameras that could take good photos in the 70s but the devil is always the edge cases and the subconscious ability to take an evenly exposed (in the Ansel Adams definition not auto camera exposure definition), well composed image at the decisive moment. Understanding how lighting works (either natural, or different artificial light like flash or studio lighting) is also not easy.

It is pretty hard to break out but people still make names for themselves either from experience on assignments like the old days but also from instagram and other social media followings. People still need weddings shot and professional portraits taken which takes some skill in understanding the logistics of how to actually do that job well efficiently and managing your equipment.

Re: Now might be the best time to learn software development

#89

Post by insane_dreamer »

bitpush wrote: post #17
psunavy03 wrote: post #14

"Great news, boss! We invented this new tool that allows nontechnical people to write code in English! Now anyone can deploy applications, and we don't have to hire all those expensive developers!" "Wow, show it to me!" "OK here it is. We call it COBOL."

Bravo. This is the exact sentiment I have, but you expressed in a way that I could never have. Most people miss the fact that technical improvements increases the pie in a way that was not possible before. When digital cameras became popular, everybody become a photographer. That only made the world better, and we got soo many more good photographers. Same with YouTube & creativity. And same with coding & LLMs. World…

> everybody become a photographer. That only made the world better, and we got soo many more good photographers.

Not sure I agree. I haven't seen much evidence of "better photography" now that it's digital instead of film. There are a million more photos taken, yes, because the cost is zero. But quantity != quality or "better", and if you're an average person, 90% those photos are in some cloud storage and rarely looked at again.

You could argue that drones have made photography better because it's enabled shots that were impossible or extremely difficult before (like certain wildlife/nature shots).

One thing digital photography did do is decimate the photographer profession because there is so much abundance of "good enough" photos - why pay someone to take good ones? (This may be a lesson for software development too.)

Re: Now might be the best time to learn software development

#90

Post by kjkjadksj »

sarchertech wrote: post #76
bluefirebrand wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> World will have lots more of apps, and programmers. This is actually bad for existing programmers though? Do you not see how this devalues your skills?

There are far more programmers now than in 1980, yet the average programmer makes far more (inflation adjusted) now.

Thank the Bangalore office for that.
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