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All software engineers should learn how to do everything: moving heavy furniture, fixing keyboards, fixing wi-fi issues, procuring requirements, writing code, d

All software engineers should learn how to do everything: moving heavy furniture, fixing keyboards, fixing wi-fi issues, procuring requirements, writing code, deploying code, ops, customer support, market research, B.D., project management, payment integration, technical writing, securing grants, the list goes on. Better yet, they should create a culture where knowing all these things is regarded as the baseline (as TFA says, 'table stakes') and boundaries around responsibilities are strongly discouraged. No extra compensation should be expected as one's responsibilities explode exponentially week over week. That way, employers can really get the bang for their buck. Everyone should provide dramatically outsized value to their employer. The massive leverage of the internet and the amazing margins of SaaS are hardly enough to make ends meet. It's the least you can do.

mooreds 5y ago
I mean, I appreciate a good snarking as much as the next person, but I posted this because knowing how to operate software is a key part of writing it well. In a way things like 'BD' are not. Note that my read was that this is in the context of the typical SaaS web application, not necessarily some of the other areas of software development.
- sombremesa 5y ago
  I agree with you that poor software engineering has ops implications, having supported trashy production apps with appalling memory leaks. However, I don't believe that knowing ops necessarily makes you a 'better' software engineer — the beneficiary here is not the software industry (or said software engineer), but your employer specifically, because they now get to hire one person who will do everything. The same goes for the rise of the fullstack developer, who god forbid should get paid a dime more than a backend engineer. I'm advocating for the controversial idea that people should get paid more if they are capable of (and doing) more. I don't think your article itself is very novel or controversial (i.e., it's good old regular stuff), so I'm steering the direction of the discussion towards something I find more interesting.

mooreds 5y ago

I mean, I appreciate a good snarking as much as the next person, but I posted this because knowing how to operate software is a key part of writing it well. In a way things like 'BD' are not. Note that my read was that this is in the context of the typical SaaS web application, not necessarily some of the other areas of software development.

sombremesa 5y ago
I agree with you that poor software engineering has ops implications, having supported trashy production apps with appalling memory leaks. However, I don't believe that knowing ops necessarily makes you a 'better' software engineer — the beneficiary here is not the software industry (or said software engineer), but your employer specifically, because they now get to hire one person who will do everything. The same goes for the rise of the fullstack developer, who god forbid should get paid a dime more than a backend engineer. I'm advocating for the controversial idea that people should get paid more if they are capable of (and doing) more. I don't think your article itself is very novel or controversial (i.e., it's good old regular stuff), so I'm steering the direction of the discussion towards something I find more interesting.