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My intuition (that I have no data to support) is because the average level of skill of software engineers is dropping. As writing software has gained a reputat

My intuition (that I have no data to support) is because the average level of skill of software engineers is dropping. As writing software has gained a reputation for being a lucrative and desirable profession, it has attracted more and more people. If you were someone who took up programming in the 80s it was probably because you had a good aptitude for it and found it interesting. Now, there are more people joining the profession who don't have the same level of aptitude. So now instead of a small team of highly skilled people, you often end up with large teams of less skilled people. Interestingly there doesn't seem to be much of a halfway house - your project is either staffed by 6 people or 30+.

wruza 7y ago
Frameworks also effectively hide “bare metal” from developer, so they develop magical thinking. I’m really tired at my job of debunking magical and simply wrong assumptions and claims about how something works. Being unable to understand and implement something yourself, shadowed by Framework Authority, dooms one to remain in a pit of false incompetence.
- thfuran 7y ago
  Is false incompetence where true genius lies?
collyw 7y ago
> My intuition (that I have no data to support) is because the average level of skill of software engineers is dropping. As someone that has been in the industry close to 20 years, my guess is that the constant churn is getting in the way. Around 2000 when I started, we had 3 tier apps, people knew how to optimise relational databases to get their application to perform. These days we need to add Kubernetes, Docker, Nosql to cloud platforms in order for it to scale - despite never needing this stuff 15 years ago. Instead of mastering our craft we are encouraged to forget everything and use this new technology instead, as it will be the silver bullet to all our problems. It's closer to a fashion show than engineering.

wruza 7y ago

Frameworks also effectively hide “bare metal” from developer, so they develop magical thinking. I’m really tired at my job of debunking magical and simply wrong assumptions and claims about how something works. Being unable to understand and implement something yourself, shadowed by Framework Authority, dooms one to remain in a pit of false incompetence.

thfuran 7y ago
Is false incompetence where true genius lies?

collyw 7y ago

> My intuition (that I have no data to support) is because the average level of skill of software engineers is dropping. As someone that has been in the industry close to 20 years, my guess is that the constant churn is getting in the way. Around 2000 when I started, we had 3 tier apps, people knew how to optimise relational databases to get their application to perform. These days we need to add Kubernetes, Docker, Nosql to cloud platforms in order for it to scale - despite never needing this stuff 15 years ago. Instead of mastering our craft we are encouraged to forget everything and use this new technology instead, as it will be the silver bullet to all our problems. It's closer to a fashion show than engineering.