Things I Learned to Become a Senior Software Engineer

Re:Things I Learned to Become a Senior Software Engineer by riffraff on Monday September 07, 2020 @10:28AM (#24399620)

I interpreted that more as a difference in the potential problems you may cause rather than the skills required, as GP referred to "responsibility".

If FB goes down, people waste less time online[0], if a guidance system fails people may die.

[0] yes, of course there are people whose livelihood depends on cat memes, but I'm making a generic example.

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Re:Things I Learned to Become a Senior Software Engineer by willcipriano on Monday September 07, 2020 @11:33AM (#24400092)

> If FB goes down, people waste less time online, if a guidance system fails people may die.

Goes down yes, but what about a data breach? What if, for example, the location of a woman is mistakenly exposed to a abusive partner?

In my view the distinction between a senior software engineer and not is the ability to see how both human and software systems interact and find failure modes that others may miss.

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Re:Things I Learned to Become a Senior Software Engineer by RandoHolmes on Monday September 07, 2020 @02:56PM (#24401679)

You know you're in a bad spot when you start arguing that a website has as much potential for bad results as a weapons system.

by definition it's not true, and any sequence of thoughts that lead you to that conclusion are wrong, period.

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