Re:Ask HN: After Coding, What Next?
by cyberlab on Tuesday March 23, 2021 @02:31PM
(#26558462)
Knowing how to compartment your digital life, as-well as secure it, and gain some privacy is a must have skill in the coming years. With so many people becoming 'extremely online' and every device becoming a 'smart device', it's super pertinent to know how to secure all that and gain privacy too.
It used to be very hard to do all this, but now there are community vetted tools and tool-suites we can use to level up security & personal privacy. Think ad-blockers, mature and capable Operating Sytems like Ubuntu, privacy aware browsers like Firefox & the Tor Browser Bundle, as-well as encrypted cloud-based note-taking apps like Standard Notes, and even password managers like Bitwarden. We are spoiled for choice lately!
Re:Ask HN: After Coding, What Next?
by muzani on Wednesday March 24, 2021 @03:31AM
(#26564461)
"Coding" has been around since papyrus was invented. Scribes and bureaucrats have always been upper middle class.
It's just putting data on a medium and communicating information. It's why I'm skeptical on no-code ending coding - the most effective form of communication is code. High level code is shorthand - one of the most efficient things out there is array.map().filter()
We'll have AI writing code in the future, but programmers will just become today's equivalent of project owners and managers. They still need to break down requirements, design, tests, and so on. Until there's AGI, someone needs to talk to the customers and clients.
Re:Ask HN: After Coding, What Next?
by softwaredoug on Wednesday March 24, 2021 @11:14AM
(#26568268)
Coding is like literacy, but the way you apply that skill evolves and becomes specialized. Just like there's different kinds of writing like technical writing, creative writing, etc.
There's roles for people that focus on lower-level operating system or embedded systems development. There's roles for people that focus on frontend, or web application development. There's many roles where you wouldn't be considered a software engineer, but involve coding like in science or research.
While being a good software engineer (like being a good writer) are skills that translate well, I think the specializations and skills will continue to evolve into different niches. Some of these niches will be longer lived, others more transitory. When you develop your own skills, you have to decide if the skills you invest in are going to be longer-lived/valuable, or if they'll go away and not be particularly useful.
Re:Ask HN: After Coding, What Next?
by meiraleal on Tuesday March 23, 2021 @08:11PM
(#26561990)
Coding. It might looks ubiquitous already but this is only the beginning. Software is eating the world so to be a programmer and to be a "programmed" will soon become a new class division.
It used to be very hard to do all this, but now there are community vetted tools and tool-suites we can use to level up security & personal privacy. Think ad-blockers, mature and capable Operating Sytems like Ubuntu, privacy aware browsers like Firefox & the Tor Browser Bundle, as-well as encrypted cloud-based note-taking apps like Standard Notes, and even password managers like Bitwarden. We are spoiled for choice lately!
It's just putting data on a medium and communicating information. It's why I'm skeptical on no-code ending coding - the most effective form of communication is code. High level code is shorthand - one of the most efficient things out there is array.map().filter()
We'll have AI writing code in the future, but programmers will just become today's equivalent of project owners and managers. They still need to break down requirements, design, tests, and so on. Until there's AGI, someone needs to talk to the customers and clients.
Coding is dime a dozen skill these days. Understanding what to code, and the overall strategy is way more valuable.
Learn strategy, policy, architecture, etc.
There's roles for people that focus on lower-level operating system or embedded systems development. There's roles for people that focus on frontend, or web application development. There's many roles where you wouldn't be considered a software engineer, but involve coding like in science or research.
While being a good software engineer (like being a good writer) are skills that translate well, I think the specializations and skills will continue to evolve into different niches. Some of these niches will be longer lived, others more transitory. When you develop your own skills, you have to decide if the skills you invest in are going to be longer-lived/valuable, or if they'll go away and not be particularly useful.