Re:How to Be a Programmer: A Short, Comprehensive, and Perso...
by enraged_camel on Saturday December 22, 2018 @08:27PM
(#18743749)
>>Programming is generally considered more challenging than most professions, and it has a transformative potential that must other fields don't.
Or, most other fields have already transformed the world. Programming is in the process of transforming the world. So it looks to us as if it is unique.
Re:How to Be a Programmer: A Short, Comprehensive, and Perso...
by sbov on Saturday December 22, 2018 @11:13PM
(#18744379)
Software is roughly the way we take ideas that cannot be made in a physical form and put them out there in the world. The idea that 'software' will some day stop transforming the world is just as weird to me as saying physical matter will some day stop transforming the world.
That said, most of us have pretty plain jobs. And most of what we write isn't that impressive. But still, just like you can invent a completely new gadget (that is likely useless), you will always be able to invent a completely new piece of software (that is likely useless).
We're also entering a new era of the difference between cutting-edge or transformative engineers, and (the still respectable, but more normal) standard dev.
I do some pretty basic science based engineering. It's not special, it just helps some business people in my firm. But the deepmind guys are special, and there really isn't anything like it right now in other fields. The potential seems unbounded right now, that's really exciting!