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> Namely, there is a broad social perception that hardware design is "real" engineering, and that software is a joke. Thus, the best and most talented engineers
by the_only_law 4y ago
> Namely, there is a broad social perception that hardware design is "real" engineering, and that software is a joke. Thus, the best and most talented engineers go into hardware, and the jokers work in software, leading to this "good hardware, bad software" observed outcome and reinforcing the stereotype further.
Curious. In the US, the software people can usually make a lot more money so even many EE’s end up in software. I wonder if it’s the opposite in some of these countries, where software people are paid less than hardware people.
- xxpor 4y agoThank goodness in a way, otherwise all of us firmware people in the US wouldn't have anything to write code for!
- TingPing 4y agoI think the US situation just reflects economics. The value of software scales up more than hardware. So software teams and companies get more investment.
- seanmcdirmid 4y ago> Curious. In the US, the software people can usually make a lot more money so even many EE’s end up in software. I wonder if it’s the opposite in some of these countries, where software people are paid less than hardware people. In Japan and Taiwan, both EEs and SWEs are generally underpaid. SWEs and some EEs go to the USA or (gasp) mainland China to make more money, since software talent is generally more appreciated in those two countries. The same applies in other Asian countries (e.g. HK and Singapore, where it is software vs. financial services rather than software vs hardware).
- runnerup 4y agoActually, it still happens the same way in the USA as well -- for physical products. The hardware side of physical products is often well-supported, with higher budgets for R&D and engineering salaries, while the software side of the physical products is expected to be done barebones and as an afterthought at the end of the product development cycle. Software engineers in the US who do not work on physical products are highly paid, because they can potentially create nearly infinite return on investment with near-zero marginal product costs. But software for widgets doesn't have that infinite margin ratio. So firmware suffers greatly. Think auto infotainment systems, smart-home electronics, appliance interfaces, point-of-sale kiosks, etc.
- arise 4y agoDon't forget device drivers back in the day before all the chips got thrown directly into the motherboard. You might buy a nice soundcard, but the software that came with it (drivers and utilities both) were quite a mess. I think a big part of Apple's success was getting both hardware and software right.
- lmz 4y ago"Back in the day"? Software from motherboard manufacturers is still terrible now!