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A lot of jobs are very linear, like taking a task though some steps and wrangling people to help along the way. I think programming in a professional context i

A lot of jobs are very linear, like taking a task though some steps and wrangling people to help along the way. I think programming in a professional context is a very unique job in how much fresh thinking is required most of the time. Even at low levels you really work in a very independent way and have to make serious choices. Having a ticket rock up for a JBoss 4 app written in Seam and Rich Faces becomes a challenge because yes I know the big topics like Java, App Servers etc but there's all this new old framework knowledge I have to reacquire to solve the issue. Most jobs are not like that.

bonoboTP 6y ago
There are two sides to this. On the one hand, yes, software needs fresh thinking because reuse is simpler than in other industries (not perfect, sure, maintainable/extensible/modifiable/modular code is really hard to write). In a lot of jobs people have to physically manufacture or process something and it requires effort for each new item. In software, if you write yourself a script that does the weekly maintenance on the server, then you won't have to type it every week. You still have to fix any new problems that inevitably pop up, but you don't have to do the exact same stuff over and over. On the other hand, I think this attitude of programmers is too smug. Many jobs that seem simple have to solve difficult problems and require engineer-like thinking. Sure some low-skill jobs, like cashier or mail delivery or truck driving don't require a lot of novel thinking on a daily basis. The bulk of the job is carrying out what you know. But take for instance event organizers: no two events are the same. You need to negotiate the requirements from the client just like in software, you need to split up the work, plan it all out, execute together etc. Constraints often force you to be inventive. Or how about lawyers? Even in mundane affairs, like divorce, no two cases are the same. There is probably more in common between one corporate mobile app or CRUD system and the other, than the circumstances of two divorce cases. How about doctors? Sure some of it is routine, like much of a GP's work. But in complex surgeries they need to come up with a specific strategy and plan for the individual patient. In fact, I think most jobs paid at the level of software engineers require a similar amount of novel thinking. The contrast is not software vs rest, but well-paid professional jobs vs low-paid, low-skill repetitive jobs (physical and mental as well, like office paper pushing). Furthermore, many software jobs are really 9-5 "manufacturing". Not every dev is John Carmack. There's a huge demand on really simple business stuff and the very same functionality gets built over and over again by different companies for different business clients. These may be lower paid than the fun Google-level research-like creative software jobs, but they are out there. So top software jobs should be compared to the top of other professions, not just to any "white collar" job (because in the latter case you also have to include the "code monkeys" in the software jobs).

bonoboTP 6y ago

There are two sides to this. On the one hand, yes, software needs fresh thinking because reuse is simpler than in other industries (not perfect, sure, maintainable/extensible/modifiable/modular code is really hard to write). In a lot of jobs people have to physically manufacture or process something and it requires effort for each new item. In software, if you write yourself a script that does the weekly maintenance on the server, then you won't have to type it every week. You still have to fix any new problems that inevitably pop up, but you don't have to do the exact same stuff over and over. On the other hand, I think this attitude of programmers is too smug. Many jobs that seem simple have to solve difficult problems and require engineer-like thinking. Sure some low-skill jobs, like cashier or mail delivery or truck driving don't require a lot of novel thinking on a daily basis. The bulk of the job is carrying out what you know. But take for instance event organizers: no two events are the same. You need to negotiate the requirements from the client just like in software, you need to split up the work, plan it all out, execute together etc. Constraints often force you to be inventive. Or how about lawyers? Even in mundane affairs, like divorce, no two cases are the same. There is probably more in common between one corporate mobile app or CRUD system and the other, than the circumstances of two divorce cases. How about doctors? Sure some of it is routine, like much of a GP's work. But in complex surgeries they need to come up with a specific strategy and plan for the individual patient. In fact, I think most jobs paid at the level of software engineers require a similar amount of novel thinking. The contrast is not software vs rest, but well-paid professional jobs vs low-paid, low-skill repetitive jobs (physical and mental as well, like office paper pushing). Furthermore, many software jobs are really 9-5 "manufacturing". Not every dev is John Carmack. There's a huge demand on really simple business stuff and the very same functionality gets built over and over again by different companies for different business clients. These may be lower paid than the fun Google-level research-like creative software jobs, but they are out there. So top software jobs should be compared to the top of other professions, not just to any "white collar" job (because in the latter case you also have to include the "code monkeys" in the software jobs).