zlacker

I agree with tptacek here. Based on just my experience (contractor then corporate programmer for the last decade), probably 99% of programming work out there in the world is mechanical rote that just involves reading comprehension and the ability to mechanically execute steps in some order. Calling this type of work complex only means someone fucked up somewhere.

Certainly there are specializations that are pushing the edge of research, but we are talking about an industry here, not the few research-y jobs that still exist.

>>weeelv+(OP)
15 years in I have built systems from scratch and done menial janitor work. I don't think its fair to say that that it isn't complex, some shitty work can be really complex due to subtleties and it would take someone with a fair bit of experience to fix. If it was so easy there wouldn't be a shortage of tech workers and our wages would be way lower.

>>weeelv+(OP)
I always find it interesting that game programmers have to be so much more technically skilled (well, until the age of game engine middle-ware) than full-stack CRUD jockeys, and yet are compensated much worse.

Science is fucking hard, and biology is fucking complicated. Trying to make this transition now, and ermahgerd I thought I dealt with complex system. Not!

>>collyw+24
Im not saying this type of work cant be complex (again, usually because “someone fucked up somewhere”), but it certainly doesn’t have to be.

>>Jabavu+gd
Agree 100%, although the same could be said of UI developers back before “middleware” (browsers, decent ui frameworks, etc). That shit was hard and required geometry and matrices. Occasionally your CSS guru today will touch on that stuff (that is the 1%), but with thousands of libraries or working implementations at their disposal. I think this will happen eventually in all specializations - you will eventually have your “ML devs” that invoke a library to recognize a hotdog in an image etc.