7 ms·
>right now the ability to program your computers is way better than it‘s been at any time in my 50+ years since you’ve got world class compilers, interpreters a
by sras-me 2y ago
>right now the ability to program your computers is way better than it‘s been at any time in my 50+ years since you’ve got world class compilers, interpreters and development tools available for free along with all the documentation you can eat on the internet...
Sure, but all that is useless if motivation is missing. A BASIC prompt, or even a terminal into which type commands, is infinitly more motivating w.r.t programming than a desktop filled with "Apps".
- stouset 2y agoHow many software engineers do we have in 2025 vs. 1985?
- Topgamer7 2y agoWithout evidence, this argument just measures population growth.
- firesteelrain 2y ago~28.2 million SW engineers in 2024 6,800 SW engineers in 1985 that's what I found - probably not called SW engineers in 1985 though
- yava2025 2y agodo you count frontend engineers as software engineers (I dont)
- stouset 2y agoThe number has increased by so many orders of magnitude, you can discount any subset you like and it won’t meaningfully change the obvious conclusion.
- sras-me 2y agoA lot more, but I think it is pretty obvious that it is mostly because it pays a lot. Not because of more intrinsic motivation.
- stouset 2y agoOkay. And? That’s not me just being glib. We have almost a million percent more engineers these days, and that number is very nearly not an exaggeration. I’ll take that over your BASIC prompt plus “intrinsic motivation”, whatever that is. By every possible measure, more of the people you think probably “should” be software engineers are today.
- sras-me 2y agoI don't think more people should become software engineers. But I think more people, even non-professional programmers should be able to program computers for their own needs. So basically I think programming should be something that a lay person do, like learning to drive a car.
- stouset 2y agoMore people than ever are capable of this today by a wide margin than at any point in history. Computers being insanely useful out of the box is what has driven their adoption, and that widespread access has done more to enable people to explore programming than dropping hapless novices into a BASIC prompt at startup.
- sras-me 2y ago> More people than ever are capable of this today by a wide margin than at any point in history. Capable, yes. Because there is Internet. But is it easily discoverable? and is it interesting once discovered? No and No.