
Ask HN: Are We Seriously Done? - shd4
I mean, look at the state of the SW industry. Startups and everything.<p>You know? That&#x27;s it. I&#x27;ve seen more than 20 YRs of it. I&#x27;m still current but for what? Where does it lead? I&#x27;m no oldschooler. There was an ideal of future - 10 years ago maybe? Let&#x27;s reflect the state that led us to ... What? We don&#x27;t even know now. Where do we head now? Current gens (Gen Z) have no idea. Do we?
======
tmcb
I was thinking about that over the weekend and it crossed my mind that the
software industry doesn't the "blue-collar buffers" that other industries
have.

This may sound elitist, but it is just the contrary. We are systematically
raising the bar to those who wish to join our industry. As a result, a mass of
(apparently) highly skilled workers, some of those eager to explore the
frontiers of human knowledge, is now responsible for the conduction of less
exciting chores.

__Provided we make sure that those with no academic degrees can be offered
dignified work conditions__, that must go.

You don't have an Electrical Engineer do you home's wiring.

You don't have a Mechanical Engineer fix your car's fuel injection system.

You don't have a Civil Engineer lay bricks on a construction site.

Is that the sole reason those industries seem extremely mature in comparison
to the software industry? Honestly, I don't know, but it is certainly an
indicator. The artifacts they produce, and their body of knowledge, is so
reliable and powerful that everyone could attend a six-month course on it and
make a decent living afterwards.

------
downerending
It'd be interesting to hear more detail on your concerns here. Is it just a
general feeling of lack of forward progress by the discipline/industry?

In general, the quote "history doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme"
speaks to me on this. Modern programming languages and OSes are slightly
nicer, but at the end of the day, your odds of hitting a bug while using a
program are about the same as they were in the 70s. Management still often has
no clue. Etc. Nothing new under the sun.

------
ArtWomb
Time to Reboot

~~~
shd4
That'd be actually lovely. Not a bad idea. Start from scratch. Rethink
everything. Like in the 70s. Create stuff like UNIX, etc. There's a lot that
needs fresh thinkin'. But ... there's nothing like that happening at all.
Seriously. Gen Z are not picking-up at all, have no idea, depend on us. And
that's real bad (for the future).

~~~
verdverm
Are you being age-ist here? Do you remember how you were at their age? What
did the older generation say about ours... and now we say the same?

~~~
tmcb
My impression is that he meant Gen Z did not have the chance to witness the
alleged deterioration of the software industry, hence, can't tell how bad is
it.

