4 ms·

As a developer, I will never work on two things: Life critical software (medical devices, etc) and a web browser.

• ska 5y ago
  medical devices, at least, can be really rewarding work.
  • Tade0 5y ago
    They're definitely more fun than the regular stuff, because you're dealing with the messy reality of how the human body works.
• GuB-42 5y ago
  If medical devices are like avionics, life critical software is actually pretty boring. And it is probably a good thing. I definitely didn't have the feeling that "if I get that wrong, someone will die". Yes, it is definitely true that people may die, but responsibility is so diluted that if feels so foreign. You are given specifications that are extremely detailed, you implement them, all the fancy stuff is banned. You freeze the version, then someone reads the specs, write the tests, pass the tests, weeks later, they discover a problem in the specs, update the specs, update the code, update the tests, freeze, more testing, etc... Refactoring? Don't even think about it. Continuous integration? Sure, but that won't update your documentation signed by 15 different people that is necessary for certification. The process is so mind numbing and tedious that the fact that there are lives on the line is the only motivation. And even with that, many people simply don't give a fuck (and it is as scary as is sounds). When the software is finally in production, if there is a problem, it passed through so many hands that no one and everyone is responsible at the same time.