4 ms·

People have been making these doomer claims since 00s to my memory and all that has been proven since then is we don't have enough software engineers.

delecti 4y ago
I almost feel like coding is currently what typing was 60 years ago. "Typist" isn't really a job anymore, but stenographer and transcriptionist are. Likewise, I think that coding needs to become something basically everyone can do a tiny bit of, but only a relatively smaller group do as their entire job.
- dilyevsky 4y ago
  Yes my algebra professor used to say same thing almost 20 years ago now
- baq 4y ago
  almost anybody can be a coder but software engineering is super freakin' hard - and I only say this because I'm soon wrapping up my second decade of doing it. the amount of things you can't efficiently learn at school is staggering. I see young promising people focusing on 'tech stacks', 'deep learning', etc. hence missing the forest from the trees and think that it simply isn't possible to exit school as a competent software engineer. you have to really try to be one to become one and no school makes you do that. it's you.
- robotnikman 4y ago
  On the other hand, it seems like technical proficiency might be going down with newer generations. Many were raised on smartphones and tablets where you just tap something and it does the thing. Devices nowadays abstract a lot of the underlying system away from the users, even to the point where apparently the newer generation struggles with the concept of files and directories.
  - supertrope 4y ago
    Using a computer as a consumer is an entirely different skill set from making them. Just as most car owners barely know how their machine works besides stepping on an accelerator pedal and occasionally inserting a fuel nozzle. Even before the smartphone revolution brought computing to global masses of all income levels, most users were not makers.

delecti 4y ago

I almost feel like coding is currently what typing was 60 years ago. "Typist" isn't really a job anymore, but stenographer and transcriptionist are. Likewise, I think that coding needs to become something basically everyone can do a tiny bit of, but only a relatively smaller group do as their entire job.

dilyevsky 4y ago
Yes my algebra professor used to say same thing almost 20 years ago now
baq 4y ago
almost anybody can be a coder but software engineering is super freakin' hard - and I only say this because I'm soon wrapping up my second decade of doing it. the amount of things you can't efficiently learn at school is staggering. I see young promising people focusing on 'tech stacks', 'deep learning', etc. hence missing the forest from the trees and think that it simply isn't possible to exit school as a competent software engineer. you have to really try to be one to become one and no school makes you do that. it's you.
robotnikman 4y ago
On the other hand, it seems like technical proficiency might be going down with newer generations. Many were raised on smartphones and tablets where you just tap something and it does the thing. Devices nowadays abstract a lot of the underlying system away from the users, even to the point where apparently the newer generation struggles with the concept of files and directories.
- supertrope 4y ago
  Using a computer as a consumer is an entirely different skill set from making them. Just as most car owners barely know how their machine works besides stepping on an accelerator pedal and occasionally inserting a fuel nozzle. Even before the smartphone revolution brought computing to global masses of all income levels, most users were not makers.