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Yeah you're right, and it's almost certainly the chief constraint most software engineers labor under. But this is a classic race to the bottom, and regulation

Yeah you're right, and it's almost certainly the chief constraint most software engineers labor under. But this is a classic race to the bottom, and regulation is coming. The days when you could write an app that takes a person's information and stores it negligently are drawing to a close. Given sufficient liability penalties, the economic question will shift away from "what if we're late" to "what if it's broken", and that's when you'll start seeing a shift away from languages like C/C++ (and probably also languages like Python and JavaScript) towards languages/platforms/tooling that provide strong, indemnifying guarantees.

coldtea 8y ago
That would be also a great way for the large companies like Google (who can afford to take their time and pay fines when they need) to eliminate all smaller shops -- by extending those penalties in many places where it's not needed (eg. no personal data involved). Like BS regulations in cheese, wine making etc, has eliminated small regional producers (once dominant) in favor of large conglomerates -- at least France is somewhat holding up.
- camgunz 8y ago
  Yeah it's kind of a quandary with regulations: larger organizations have the resources to comply with them while smaller ones don't. There are things you can do to work around it though (though admittedly they're rarely employed): - Exempt smaller organizations. Maybe the classic example is the ACA in the US; if you're under a certain number of employees you don't need to provide health care. Obvious pitfalls, but still an option. - Provide subsidies. This isn't exactly going to let a 10 person shop compete with someone like Airbus, but it does let you do things like hire staff and purchase tools to comply with regulations. And separate from all that, it would be cool if we started enforcing antitrust legislation in the US again.

coldtea 8y ago

That would be also a great way for the large companies like Google (who can afford to take their time and pay fines when they need) to eliminate all smaller shops -- by extending those penalties in many places where it's not needed (eg. no personal data involved). Like BS regulations in cheese, wine making etc, has eliminated small regional producers (once dominant) in favor of large conglomerates -- at least France is somewhat holding up.

camgunz 8y ago
Yeah it's kind of a quandary with regulations: larger organizations have the resources to comply with them while smaller ones don't. There are things you can do to work around it though (though admittedly they're rarely employed): - Exempt smaller organizations. Maybe the classic example is the ACA in the US; if you're under a certain number of employees you don't need to provide health care. Obvious pitfalls, but still an option. - Provide subsidies. This isn't exactly going to let a 10 person shop compete with someone like Airbus, but it does let you do things like hire staff and purchase tools to comply with regulations. And separate from all that, it would be cool if we started enforcing antitrust legislation in the US again.