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Re:Software engineering may no longer be a lifetime career by amw-zero on Monday May 11, 2026 @05:00PM (#48100623)
I agree in principle, but I think the 2-5% estimate is extremely low. I could be sold on most developers spending ~25%, up to 40% of their time on code. But very few people are spending 2% of their time on it. Unless you're some sort of super senior staff / advisor to the CTO at a gigantic company, which has already placed you on rare terrain.
Re:Software engineering may no longer be a lifetime career by siren2026 on Monday May 11, 2026 @05:32PM (#48100946)
Most people overestimate how much time they spend "writing code".

I interviewed a ton of people in my career and when I ask "how much time writing code on your last job?". The more junior the person the more they would overestimate the time writing code (Some would say 90%!). Once they joined I was able to see how much time they really wrote code and it is almost never more than 30%.

Mostly because the code is only the final output. You spend most of your time doing research, talking to people. Working on Quarterly OKRs, going to meetings etc.

If you just write code you are either an extremely junior person that works on things trivial enough to not have to research or your are disillusioned and you don't realize you spend most of your time doing other things

Re:Software engineering may no longer be a lifetime career by d3rockk on Monday May 11, 2026 @05:05PM (#48100669)
might be closer to accurate if the 2-5% is his estimate of the physical time spent making key-strokes
Re:Software engineering may no longer be a lifetime career by bee_rider on Monday May 11, 2026 @05:43PM (#48101060)
Surely we should only count the time actuating the key. Apple keyboard users are in shambles.
Re:Software engineering may no longer be a lifetime career by layer8 on Monday May 11, 2026 @06:16PM (#48101416)
Only the keydown, not the keyup.
Re:Software engineering may no longer be a lifetime career by mh- on Monday May 11, 2026 @07:10PM (#48101981)
That's <24 minutes per 8 hour day.

If you're reading this and that matches your experience as an IC SWE whose job is ostensibly developing software.. you're either trapped in a very atypical org, or you're heading for a PIP.

Re:Software engineering may no longer be a lifetime career by siren2026 on Monday May 11, 2026 @05:33PM (#48100948)
Nope. I would bet most people really only do 2-10%.

But we would like to convince ourselves we don't.