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I can't speak for xradionut obviously, but he specifically said RF, not "hardware", so your statements are not equivalent. RF is a different beast, and its pec

I can't speak for xradionut obviously, but he specifically said RF, not "hardware", so your statements are not equivalent. RF is a different beast, and its peculiarities do make just about any RF problem more complex and more difficult than most software problems. Hell, they are more complex and more difficult than most other EE problems as well and the original statement could have been applied to digital design engineers without losing any meaning.

ithkuil 13y ago
sure, but my point is that it's not because $field_a is easier than $field_b, but since $field_a allows to hack something up quickly even by inexperienced people, there is the feeling that $field_b is harder and more worthy just because it's difficult to get anything done without working hard. Replace $field_a and $field_b with (guitar, sitar), (piano, violin), (digital design, rf), (software, hardware), (python script, kernel programming), ..... yet in every of $field_a there are masters whose work is at least as exciting and worth praise (if not even more) than most those that master $field_b. Although it's true that $field_b requires more skill in average to enter.
- vonmoltke 13y ago
  Maybe I am looking at this differently, but I would say that by definition what you describe makes $field_b harder than $field_a. I don't think the difficulty of the field has any bearing on its worthiness, though.
- xradionut 13y ago
  I'm not belittling software, since that's my current field of employment. And there's a large number of tough software issues that require years of experience. The point that the OP in the linked article makes is that is a few guys with a few years of modest experience in programming can go create a company worth 8 to 9 figures on the market with few resources other than time and luck and connections. He then states that this isn't possible in the semiconductor world due to the amount of experience required in that field. I've worked in the semiconductor industry and I agree 100%. I've also worked in RF and it's the same. There's no successful equivalent in those realms that compares to something like Twitter or most of acquisition bait out there. The amount and complexity of the knowledge is insane. (Not to mention the manpower...) And from a guy who's worked the whole stack from component level to user applications; Python scripting is a couple of orders of magnitude easier than debugging firmware or dealing with DSP code/math or testing semiconductors/antennas. Doesn't require a doctorate to build websites or develop CRUD applications.

ithkuil 13y ago

sure, but my point is that it's not because $field_a is easier than $field_b, but since $field_a allows to hack something up quickly even by inexperienced people, there is the feeling that $field_b is harder and more worthy just because it's difficult to get anything done without working hard. Replace $field_a and $field_b with (guitar, sitar), (piano, violin), (digital design, rf), (software, hardware), (python script, kernel programming), ..... yet in every of $field_a there are masters whose work is at least as exciting and worth praise (if not even more) than most those that master $field_b. Although it's true that $field_b requires more skill in average to enter.

vonmoltke 13y ago
Maybe I am looking at this differently, but I would say that by definition what you describe makes $field_b harder than $field_a. I don't think the difficulty of the field has any bearing on its worthiness, though.
xradionut 13y ago
I'm not belittling software, since that's my current field of employment. And there's a large number of tough software issues that require years of experience. The point that the OP in the linked article makes is that is a few guys with a few years of modest experience in programming can go create a company worth 8 to 9 figures on the market with few resources other than time and luck and connections. He then states that this isn't possible in the semiconductor world due to the amount of experience required in that field. I've worked in the semiconductor industry and I agree 100%. I've also worked in RF and it's the same. There's no successful equivalent in those realms that compares to something like Twitter or most of acquisition bait out there. The amount and complexity of the knowledge is insane. (Not to mention the manpower...) And from a guy who's worked the whole stack from component level to user applications; Python scripting is a couple of orders of magnitude easier than debugging firmware or dealing with DSP code/math or testing semiconductors/antennas. Doesn't require a doctorate to build websites or develop CRUD applications.