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Oh stop it, we love to think of ourselves as special. Programming is simple, so simple factory workers can do it. With the right training, it's not complicat

Oh stop it, we love to think of ourselves as special. Programming is simple, so simple factory workers can do it. With the right training, it's not complicated, I'm talking about the type of programming that happens in most places too, it's nothing more but digital factories, CRUD, gluing together framework, libraries, the DB, a queue, email, config files, very few original code. Very few people implement amazing novel algorithms & data structures in new projects.

devwastaken 10y ago
>Programming is simple, so simple factory workers can do it. Its simple when another programmer creates pre-packaged tools that are meant for pre-designed purposes. Even with that, its rarely done right. Its not ourselves that are special, but software is very, very complicated. All attempts to make it not complicated are designed for particular purposes that gradient to more specificity the easier they get. Creating software for others with a particular purpose without introducing the theory behind it all is expensive and difficult, and in many cases does not work. Thats all assuming you need that many programmers (we don't). Programming is completely trended towards automation, much more so than robots. That automation requires a significantly high level of knowledge, and when known can create many more systems than any beginner can. Websites are only a very small part of software, and even that is trended heavily towards automated sites like Wix or SquareSpace.
paulddraper 10y ago
While I think we're very far from "special", we are special in that we're good at programming. Being (humbly speaking of course) very good at math, and a math tutor and TA, it took a while before I realized that lots of people just don't "get it". With effort and time they can manage, but math will just never be comfortable or intuitive for them. Some people get music and rhythm and melody. I just don't. I can tell you a lot about music theory, but I can't string notes in a good sounding way to save my life.

devwastaken 10y ago

>Programming is simple, so simple factory workers can do it. Its simple when another programmer creates pre-packaged tools that are meant for pre-designed purposes. Even with that, its rarely done right. Its not ourselves that are special, but software is very, very complicated. All attempts to make it not complicated are designed for particular purposes that gradient to more specificity the easier they get. Creating software for others with a particular purpose without introducing the theory behind it all is expensive and difficult, and in many cases does not work. Thats all assuming you need that many programmers (we don't). Programming is completely trended towards automation, much more so than robots. That automation requires a significantly high level of knowledge, and when known can create many more systems than any beginner can. Websites are only a very small part of software, and even that is trended heavily towards automated sites like Wix or SquareSpace.

paulddraper 10y ago

While I think we're very far from "special", we are special in that we're good at programming. Being (humbly speaking of course) very good at math, and a math tutor and TA, it took a while before I realized that lots of people just don't "get it". With effort and time they can manage, but math will just never be comfortable or intuitive for them. Some people get music and rhythm and melody. I just don't. I can tell you a lot about music theory, but I can't string notes in a good sounding way to save my life.