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> but without much value in the broader tech industry. Not talking about AI; but if you want to work on compilers, linux kernel, game engine optimization, GPU

> but without much value in the broader tech industry. Not talking about AI; but if you want to work on compilers, linux kernel, game engine optimization, GPU optimized code and many many other things than web development you need to be more than familiar with how to work with machine instructions, albeit not working with it every single day. These are significant parts of the industry which make the rest possible.

crabmusket 4y ago
I describe it as the difference between "software development" and "software engineering". Or between "business" and "infrastructure". Both are valuable, but have different demands on understanding, rigor etc.
braveyellowtoad 4y ago
I agree with you. However, it’s worthwhile also noting these represent a very small proportion of all jobs in software development.
- krmboya 4y ago
  Did the number of jobs of people coding in assembly go down, or is it that the number of jobs of people not coding in assembly go up? (I truly don't know. Just curious)
  - geraneum 4y ago
    I tend to believe that the number of people working with machine instructions might have even increased! We have much more of the tech that I mentioned nowadays compared to 90s. Also a lot of other industries have entered digital age and in many of them, i.e aviation, transportation, financial, etc. knowing the intricacies of your hardware is crucial. The thing is that web development has seen such a boom which has seemingly dwarfed everything else in its wake.
- abnercoimbre 4y ago
  I'm not sure how you quantify "very small" here? I'm running low-level conferences [0] and they're big enough for me to be a full-time organizer for them: with a job fair that's included Mozilla, real estate, nuclear defense and various game studios. [0] https://handmadecities.com https://handmadecities.com
  - duckmysick 4y ago
    We could check popular job boards (or HN's Who's Hiring threads) and see how many postings mention compilers, kernels, assembly, GPU, etc. Then compare that number to the total.
  - bsenftner 4y ago
    Thanks for the link, just learned of this and I'm impressed and interested.
  - uthinter 4y ago
    Thanks for the link. This is really awesome!
  - gavinhoward 4y ago
    Hey Abner, programmer with much the same philosophy here. I'm interested in being an instructor, but not sure I would have anything useful to add. If you've read my blog [1], do you think I would? If you haven't read it, feel free to ignore this. Edit: I was specifically thinking about a course on fuzzing. [1]: https://gavinhoward.com/ https://gavinhoward.com/

crabmusket 4y ago

I describe it as the difference between "software development" and "software engineering". Or between "business" and "infrastructure". Both are valuable, but have different demands on understanding, rigor etc.

braveyellowtoad 4y ago

I agree with you. However, it’s worthwhile also noting these represent a very small proportion of all jobs in software development.

krmboya 4y ago
Did the number of jobs of people coding in assembly go down, or is it that the number of jobs of people not coding in assembly go up? (I truly don't know. Just curious)
- geraneum 4y ago
  I tend to believe that the number of people working with machine instructions might have even increased! We have much more of the tech that I mentioned nowadays compared to 90s. Also a lot of other industries have entered digital age and in many of them, i.e aviation, transportation, financial, etc. knowing the intricacies of your hardware is crucial. The thing is that web development has seen such a boom which has seemingly dwarfed everything else in its wake.
abnercoimbre 4y ago
I'm not sure how you quantify "very small" here? I'm running low-level conferences [0] and they're big enough for me to be a full-time organizer for them: with a job fair that's included Mozilla, real estate, nuclear defense and various game studios. [0] https://handmadecities.com https://handmadecities.com
- duckmysick 4y ago
  We could check popular job boards (or HN's Who's Hiring threads) and see how many postings mention compilers, kernels, assembly, GPU, etc. Then compare that number to the total.
- bsenftner 4y ago
  Thanks for the link, just learned of this and I'm impressed and interested.
- uthinter 4y ago
  Thanks for the link. This is really awesome!
- gavinhoward 4y ago
  Hey Abner, programmer with much the same philosophy here. I'm interested in being an instructor, but not sure I would have anything useful to add. If you've read my blog [1], do you think I would? If you haven't read it, feel free to ignore this. Edit: I was specifically thinking about a course on fuzzing. [1]: https://gavinhoward.com/ https://gavinhoward.com/