Programming labor market
Half the people who *could* code don’t want to because it is boring
Half the people who *do* code shouldn’t because they’re not really up to the challenge
Conversation
I’m mostly in the doesn’t code/shouldn’t code quadrant.
If you’re in this quadrant despite having an engineering background and being competent enough at other aspects of it., it’s called being a squib. As in Harry Potter.
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Replying to
What about someone who could, do, and up to, but is so out of phase with the market that there are no marketable skills there?
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You have marketable skills. You lack marketable demands.
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Sure... What are the demands these days? Web development and Python? The latter is incompatible with my brain, and i'll have to write a bloody web browser from scratch to have a chance of getting the former.
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You’re a backend guy. Make a crypticuurency or OS or game engine or something.
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OS? Done it. Easy in theory, suicide by drivers in practice. Game engine? Done it. Fun to play with, goes obsolete before it's done, good luck making people like it. Cryptocurrency? Death by a thousand little details, each of which rip you apart by consensus failure. FULL NOPE.
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Seriously. 98% of Linux kernel is drivers. 620Mb of TEXT. All driver code. My core repos are about 15Mb total, and it's about 2x as compact a code as industry standard. That's like 20 decades of coding. And the kernel is what, 1% of the whole OS? Here is a day of infinity for ya.
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Make OS for narrow class of devices with only 1-2 sensors/actuators
Sure... 1-2 sensors/actuators each, and 600Mb worth of various sensors and actuators. In other words, same thing. I'd rather make a CPU. 99 instructions, DDR driver, clocks and done. What is it nowadays, 500€ per cm^2? Minimum order of... forget it.
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