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To be fair, there are not many professions that a single individual can make so much impact as Software Engineering. People say 10x Software Engineer, rarely 1

by dikei 3y ago

To be fair, there are not many professions that a single individual can make so much impact as Software Engineering. People say 10x Software Engineer, rarely 10x Electrical Engineer.

moooo99 3y ago
I would argue most volunteer firefighters and other social volunteers have more net-positive impact than the vast majority software engineers.
- Cyphase 3y ago
  They didn't say positive. I think they were thinking in terms of leverage.
- MichaelZuo 3y ago
  Are you sure? A huge chunk of cost increases in modern high rise building (outside of land and taxes) is due to ever more stringent fire safety requirements.
  - moooo99 3y ago
    Would you like to see your house burn completely to the ground? Would you know how to deal with a car wreckage? I don’t, I’m grateful for those people existing. Regarding safety regulations, those were most often driven by tragedies that occurred prior to those regulations being in place. I prefer being alive over saving money
    - MichaelZuo 3y ago
      You’ll almost certainly get outvoted by the lower housing cost crowd, considering the usual comments on HN for these topics.
      - moooo99 3y ago
        well its been 5 hours and it doesn't seem like it has happened (yet). But trust me, I understand the sentiment. Housing becoming increasingly unattainable is a issue on many levels, I just think that there are other, worse, contributing factors to the overall situation. Compromising on fire safety or other reasonable safety factors effectively won't help anybody when there still is an ever increasing amount of institutional investment hiking prices on the market.
- dikei 3y ago
  Maybe, but I'm just talking about the potential here. Most type of volunteer works require more people, with some level of organizations before it becomes effective. While open-source software projects are often started by one very good SWE, as a hobby, in his own time: a very low barrier of entry. Plus, a project can live with a solo maintainer for a very long time. Though, I digress that can be detrimental in the long run, like the recent xz-utils fiasco.
Avicebron 3y ago
That's not how people use 10x (which I think is a silly article of marketing at best or a pretend metric people like to claim as some sort of totem of achievement), usually it means someone 10x more productive(???) than a supposed 1x software engineer. In that case if we applied the same make believe as we do with software, then sure a 10x electrical could exist, just think of what you think an avg electrical engineer does and 10x it, boom.

by dikei 3y ago

To be fair, there are not many professions that a single individual can make so much impact as Software Engineering. People say 10x Software Engineer, rarely 10x Electrical Engineer.

moooo99 3y ago

I would argue most volunteer firefighters and other social volunteers have more net-positive impact than the vast majority software engineers.

Cyphase 3y ago
They didn't say positive. I think they were thinking in terms of leverage.
MichaelZuo 3y ago
Are you sure? A huge chunk of cost increases in modern high rise building (outside of land and taxes) is due to ever more stringent fire safety requirements.
- moooo99 3y ago
  Would you like to see your house burn completely to the ground? Would you know how to deal with a car wreckage? I don’t, I’m grateful for those people existing. Regarding safety regulations, those were most often driven by tragedies that occurred prior to those regulations being in place. I prefer being alive over saving money
  - MichaelZuo 3y ago
    You’ll almost certainly get outvoted by the lower housing cost crowd, considering the usual comments on HN for these topics.
    - moooo99 3y ago
      well its been 5 hours and it doesn't seem like it has happened (yet). But trust me, I understand the sentiment. Housing becoming increasingly unattainable is a issue on many levels, I just think that there are other, worse, contributing factors to the overall situation. Compromising on fire safety or other reasonable safety factors effectively won't help anybody when there still is an ever increasing amount of institutional investment hiking prices on the market.
dikei 3y ago
Maybe, but I'm just talking about the potential here. Most type of volunteer works require more people, with some level of organizations before it becomes effective. While open-source software projects are often started by one very good SWE, as a hobby, in his own time: a very low barrier of entry. Plus, a project can live with a solo maintainer for a very long time. Though, I digress that can be detrimental in the long run, like the recent xz-utils fiasco.

Avicebron 3y ago

That's not how people use 10x (which I think is a silly article of marketing at best or a pretend metric people like to claim as some sort of totem of achievement), usually it means someone 10x more productive(???) than a supposed 1x software engineer. In that case if we applied the same make believe as we do with software, then sure a 10x electrical could exist, just think of what you think an avg electrical engineer does and 10x it, boom.