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The feeling that writing software doesn't matter in the slightest in the grand picture of things. As a full-stack web engineer, I don't help cure cancer, fix w

The feeling that writing software doesn't matter in the slightest in the grand picture of things. As a full-stack web engineer, I don't help cure cancer, fix world hunger, or even make people using the software happier. I help business take the customer's money to make managers on both sides of that deal happy.

jhowell 9y ago
What you describe does not sound like engineering.
giveahoot 9y ago
Wouldn't software help enable accomplishing all of the work you're comparing yourself against? I have the same feeling sometimes but software absolutely has the power to positively impact people's lives, the environment, basically anything. If you really feel strongly about this - I'd suggest looking for a job that enables you to work on something along these lines. Doesn't even have to be a non-profit but there are for-profit companies with great missions
- ThePadawan 9y ago
  I have to be honest here in saying that to give a good answer, I took my notes on why I left my last position in November. I will be starting in a smaller, more human-focused foodtech company in January (shout-out: http://felfel.ch/en/ http://felfel.ch/en/)
edraferi 9y ago
Software is used everywhere. If you care about the broader impact of your work, take your skills to an organization who’s mission you respect.
mceachen 9y ago
And even if it does (potentially) matter, the lifespan of code is horrifyingly short. Companies shut down. Management regimes want to be "impactful" and rewrite all the things. It can be to pretty demoralizing when you realize how ephemeral your work is. (That being said, I still love coding!)
- fragmede 9y ago
  Somewhere, perhaps unbeknownst to management, there's a Perl script at the heart of every company that has survived thru the 90's.
  - vgy7ujm 9y ago
    Oh yes!!!
BjoernKW 9y ago
That's a gloomy stance to take and one that in all likelihood is thoroughly misguided. While it's true that most software doesn't directly help cure cancer, fix world hunger or any of the other big, seemingly insurmountable problems, software massively helps with those quests: Where would the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation be without software (and I don't mean the fortune Bill earned with selling software)? New cancer treatments are often found through software-assisted processes. Organisations like GiveWell use software to objectively analyse the positive effect charities have. Even if you don't take these pretty direct positive impacts of software for the greater good into account, in order to be able to do their job organisations that try to make the world a better place need boring administrative systems like CRMs, ERPs and CMS, too (not to even mention operating systems like Linux and web server software like Apache). If it weren't for software all of this would have to be done manually, which would make these organisations much less effective. On top of that there's the unprecedented opportunity for worldwide communication and coordination made possible by the Internet.
buildawesome 9y ago
I disagree here. I was a pre-med, who, after a wild (and aimless) few years after college got into software because it had such an impact on the collective whole. You may want to consider joining a start-up or finding a project that you can be passionate about. But it does matter - writing good code anyway :)
ashark 9y ago
I'd say 95% of the code I've ever written hasn't done enough good for anyone to justify the money, time, and effort that went into its creation. Probably 25% was obviously doomed before I started writing it. Very little of that wasted work was of a sort that improved my skills in some significant way or had any redeeming personal value. Talk about demoralizing. It'd be nice to have a role that felt a bit farther abstracted from the level of raw, random input to cold economic processes that most development is, so I could at least fool myself into thinking I was a bit less... used.
SeanBoocock 9y ago
There are lots of ways that writing software can help people's lives, even in small or seemingly frivolous ways. I write games for a living and take satisfaction out of the idea that I'm bringing joy to a lot of people's lives. My work doesn't solve a lot of the fundamental problems or address any of Maslow's lower hierarchy of needs. But if I can create a space where people can experience the feeling of discovery or mastering a new skill, can get their mind off the rest of their lives and escape into fantasy ones, I'll consider that a job well done and the world a marginally better place for it.

jhowell 9y ago

What you describe does not sound like engineering.

giveahoot 9y ago

Wouldn't software help enable accomplishing all of the work you're comparing yourself against? I have the same feeling sometimes but software absolutely has the power to positively impact people's lives, the environment, basically anything. If you really feel strongly about this - I'd suggest looking for a job that enables you to work on something along these lines. Doesn't even have to be a non-profit but there are for-profit companies with great missions

ThePadawan 9y ago
I have to be honest here in saying that to give a good answer, I took my notes on why I left my last position in November. I will be starting in a smaller, more human-focused foodtech company in January (shout-out: http://felfel.ch/en/ http://felfel.ch/en/)

edraferi 9y ago

Software is used everywhere. If you care about the broader impact of your work, take your skills to an organization who’s mission you respect.

mceachen 9y ago

And even if it does (potentially) matter, the lifespan of code is horrifyingly short. Companies shut down. Management regimes want to be "impactful" and rewrite all the things. It can be to pretty demoralizing when you realize how ephemeral your work is. (That being said, I still love coding!)

fragmede 9y ago
Somewhere, perhaps unbeknownst to management, there's a Perl script at the heart of every company that has survived thru the 90's.
- vgy7ujm 9y ago
  Oh yes!!!

BjoernKW 9y ago

That's a gloomy stance to take and one that in all likelihood is thoroughly misguided. While it's true that most software doesn't directly help cure cancer, fix world hunger or any of the other big, seemingly insurmountable problems, software massively helps with those quests: Where would the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation be without software (and I don't mean the fortune Bill earned with selling software)? New cancer treatments are often found through software-assisted processes. Organisations like GiveWell use software to objectively analyse the positive effect charities have. Even if you don't take these pretty direct positive impacts of software for the greater good into account, in order to be able to do their job organisations that try to make the world a better place need boring administrative systems like CRMs, ERPs and CMS, too (not to even mention operating systems like Linux and web server software like Apache). If it weren't for software all of this would have to be done manually, which would make these organisations much less effective. On top of that there's the unprecedented opportunity for worldwide communication and coordination made possible by the Internet.

buildawesome 9y ago

I disagree here. I was a pre-med, who, after a wild (and aimless) few years after college got into software because it had such an impact on the collective whole. You may want to consider joining a start-up or finding a project that you can be passionate about. But it does matter - writing good code anyway :)

ashark 9y ago

I'd say 95% of the code I've ever written hasn't done enough good for anyone to justify the money, time, and effort that went into its creation. Probably 25% was obviously doomed before I started writing it. Very little of that wasted work was of a sort that improved my skills in some significant way or had any redeeming personal value. Talk about demoralizing. It'd be nice to have a role that felt a bit farther abstracted from the level of raw, random input to cold economic processes that most development is, so I could at least fool myself into thinking I was a bit less... used.

SeanBoocock 9y ago

There are lots of ways that writing software can help people's lives, even in small or seemingly frivolous ways. I write games for a living and take satisfaction out of the idea that I'm bringing joy to a lot of people's lives. My work doesn't solve a lot of the fundamental problems or address any of Maslow's lower hierarchy of needs. But if I can create a space where people can experience the feeling of discovery or mastering a new skill, can get their mind off the rest of their lives and escape into fantasy ones, I'll consider that a job well done and the world a marginally better place for it.