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0 pointsmstade3y ago0 comments

I'm afraid you may have chosen the wrong profession, to be honest. Programmers – myself included – are essentially glorified plumbers, piping data from one end to another. As much as we'd all like to think we're all architects, let's just be honest.

That's not to say plumbing doesn't take skill, it certainly does, but the point of it is that nobody except the next plumber cares how the pipes are laid out, so long as it works and works well. It's when one blows and you have to fix it, or install a second bathroom, that shit really tends to come out. If I'm the one that has to do the work, I can only hope the previous plumber had some idea of what they were doing, and didn't just leave it entirely to automation.

But if they did I'd hope they trust, but verify.

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4 comments · 4 top-level

jstimpfle3y ago

In some areas, you need to control precisely what goes where, and when. You need to achieve high throughput and/or low latency. You can't just install N x M connections but need a suitable architecture to minimize the amount of pipes as well as keep a flexible connectivity. A lot of thought goes into the architecture at a global scale, it isn't just the local "here's two ends, let's glue them together". In fact if there's a lot of that something is wrong.

ren_engineer3y ago

>Programmers – myself included – are essentially glorified plumbers, piping data from one end to another. As much as we'd all like to think we're all architects, let's just be honest.

depends what you are working on, I suppose the average web developer could probably be considered this. But there are people working on problems that require major CS knowledge, domain expertise, etc. Those types would definitely be closer to engineers building the tools that the plumber uses

DennisP3y ago

For now, a lot of us mostly glorified plumbers. If AI takes over a lot of the plumbing work, then programmers can spend their time on more creative stuff. Let the AI put the pipes together, and use your extra time to figure out a nice architecture so the pipes are easy to fix later.

Zetobal3y ago

You might just be in a different part of CS because in my part plumbing is a boring necessity and not the main focus of development work. Ofc you must do QS but that's also part of the job if you outsource the work. The profession is way broader than your narrow-minded and condescending comment might suggest.

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