
The rate of obsolescence of knowledge in software engineering - dgs_sgd
https://daltyboy11.github.io/obsolescence-of-knowledge-in-software-engineering/
======
collyw
"Software engineers with a traditional computer science background learn
things that never expire with age"

Well they do to an extent, because you use them so rarely that you forget.

Software Engineering is a craft and much of it is timeless. Unfortunately the
hiring process revolves around trendy frameworks / and tools.

~~~
ChuckNorris89
_> Unfortunately the hiring process revolves around trendy frameworks / and
tools._

Yeah, this. Sometimes I envy the leetocde way of hiring in the US, since at
least that test's your brain and craft and not what frameworks and
technologies you used like they do in Europe:

Recruiter: _" My client is looking for an experienced dev with Node and AWS
experience. What's that, you have 15 years of industry experience but it's all
on-prem Java/PHP? Too bad. NEXT!"_

Or

 _" I'm looking to fill a DevOps position for a client and your profile caught
my eye. How many years of experience do you have with Linux and Ansible?_"

It's sad that in order to get to a technical interview you have to pass the BS
recruiter filter consisting of _years in X tool /framework_ instead of skill
and domain knowledge.

~~~
invalidusernam3
> like they do in Europe

That's a pretty broad statement. I've had many styles of interviews in Europe;
from whiteboard tests, leetcode tests, domain specific tasks, to chatty
lunches with no practical test.

~~~
ChuckNorris89
The interview yes, it's like how you said, but usually before you get to an
interview you have to pass a BS filter from a less technically savvy recruiter
who skims through your resume looking for the years of experience in X
tool/frameowrk the hiring manager told them he uses.

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josefrichter
I guess it depends on what kind of developer you are. You might do easy stuff
in trendy frameworks, in which case you're closer to the physicist - but only
in the sense that your knowledge is rendered obsolete every couple of years.

If you operate deeper, you're much closer to the English professor. The
fundamentals don't really go thru revolutionary changes.

~~~
beagle3
That's true, but occasionally revolutions happen.

"artificial intelligence" and "machine learning" were pretty static from the
early '1990s to the late '2000s - and then, all of a sudden there was an
explosion which many "English professors" missed.

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jmpman
The ability to debug at a system level never goes away. I’m finding that the
lessons I learned 20 years ago remain relevant, only the tools to gather and
analyze the data have changed.

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throwawaysea
> What would the half-life of the value of a software engineer’s knowledge be?
> I suspect it’s somewhere between the physicist’s and the English professor’s
> because a software engineer’s knowledge is a combination of eternal computer
> science/engineering principles and ephemeral technologies that drift in and
> out of popularity over time.

Isn’t most of a physicist’s knowledge eternal, relative to a software
engineer’s? After all, software engineering is based on systems designed by
man while physics is modeling the fundamental universe.

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jart
In software engineering a better term would be end-of-life. Vogue frameworks
and paradigms are more about building communities. Exciting communities help
people who are getting started to learn as well as staffing and conferences.
What is and isn't popular has very little to do with engineering. Take into
consideration that 1/3rd of all programmers, probably only started doing it in
the last couple years. [https://archive.is/cSzqy](https://archive.is/cSzqy)

~~~
abraxas
You're getting downmodded somewhat unfairly imo. People here underestimate
heavily the momentum of fads in our industry. So many technologies that the
industry rallied behind fell by the wayside purely because something newer
displaced it by having the energy and momentum of youth behind it. After close
to three decades in the industry it becomes very obvious when and how the wind
of change is blowing and what's being swept by the wayside.

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dgs_sgd
Author here! I came across the original study referring to the "physicist" and
the "English Professor" while reading Economic Facts and Fallacies by Thomas
Sowell. It's an interesting read that addresses almost all of the hot
political topics of today.

~~~
throwawaysea
I’ve heard a lot about Sowell, particularly in terms of his ability to frame
today’s current events in a prescient way, but haven’t read anything from him.
Do you have a particular work from him that you’d recommend as an
intro/starter?

~~~
dgs_sgd
The first book of his I read was Intellectuals and Race. Economic Facts and
Fallacies is similar in terms of how the arguments are framed (though it
touches on different subjects). I'm not sure if this is true of all his books
but I would recommend looking through his complete works (there's a lot) and
picking one on a topic you're particularly interested in :).

