There have been several moments now where right before sleeping this thought has come to my mind. If I want to make any impact on others, is software the right way to do so? The answer is not simple, on second thought it will get even more confusing
are software developers working on anything real?
This question when i first heard, the answer was obvious to me. Software helps everyone in every day-to-day tasks whether we notice or not. So surely softwares are real, and necessary. I agree it’s not physical labor, no physical tools required, but the outcome of the software affects us indirectly. But is it overdone now? aren’t we stretching it too thin
Let’s iterate on all software we use today. For an end user, they will include online shopping, online payment systems, online booking systems, embedded software in all IoT or household devices and all types of entertainment devices. For businesses these will include their management tools for all kinds of processes and improving efficiency of related physical processes. End of the day, the software is and has to relate to something physical - a ticket, an appointment to some irl event, etc.
Most of these I consider essential, and in this context “real”. But these are already made, at most we just need to maintain/improve them. but what about every other tool which pops up every second by some new startup in sf, what purpose does it solve? I’m not telling it is useless or that it solves no real problem. But majority of these solutions are just to improve some already present workflow. Removing some inconvenience.
Why inconvenience?
Is it that important to solve for minor inconveniences in life? The world was functioning without doorstep delivery, it was functioning without the smartphone, without the internet, without on demand services, it was functioning without even the printing machine. We are progressing, but look at how the focus of the revolutions shifted from world changing stuff, to making our lives easier. Do we need to solve for making our lives easier when it’s actually in danger due to stuff we do not give a damn about? think about it.
There is a chance that the cumulative time spent by a team working on a product is actually more than what the end user will save on, or what the business will save on by the time the workflow completely becomes redundant due to some other shift of technology. This is bad.
The world actually needs more smart people to work on non software jobs. It’s like grinding a game so hard on just one skill, but still failing to beat the boss. Most of the research points are being spent on unnecessary software, which can be rather spent on unlocking revolutionary tech the society needs in long term. I bet if most smart people were working on it, we would have completely sustainable energy sources, feasible alternatives for energy storage and many other fundamental problems we are stuck on as a society by now.
Who am I to tell?
Being in the software industry sadly it’s not the right time for me. Once the right time comes, I’ll leave this industry and work on some real stuff (robotics, manufacturing, theoretical physics, qc). But we need to understand this that if we change the beliefs, we can direct the upcoming generations to the right path.