Transport and logistics seems to be a tried and trodden industry compared to Software. Another thing is that developers are not against careful consideration of tech choices. They are rather against old legacy code that cannot be refactored or changed or bureacracy ignores developers concerns to the detriment of the company's future.
I've seen where tech decisions were made on a whim in a startup and new engineers had to suffer the decaying legacy code. It depends on context and circumstances.
> "well you have an engineering degree, we will see about that".
Well this means you dodged a bullet early :) It's better they wasted your time for the interview (couple hours or days of preparing?) than months or years of your time working there.
So theres a couple points after reading through this:
1. The driver in the article even says that this case might not be racially motivated. There was a fist fight going on and it was related to the passengers. Passengers got in the car and the group attacked the passengers and the driver.
2. There has been a lot of Asian rascism and hate crimes in America. There was some statistic that showed ~50% was from African Americans and ~30% from Latinos. News have been underreporting this in light of the statistics. This is a huge issue that media is hiding from us.
3. This rise in asian hate crimes might stem from harsher job market and rise in Chinese propaganda. In fact, it also seems like Black/Latino community after being oppressed so long is lashing out at another minority community. I would suggest it might stem from 1. A lack of financial opportunities and 2. Systemic oppression against Blacks in America. It's like how Trump likes to do it. Deflect the blame and hatred at others instead of really looking at the main issue.
Overall, both class and wealth inequality comes into play. I would suggest there's quite of things going on but what would improve it would be:
1. Start improving the education system in America. Education is usually correlated to higher wage, better working standards and job satisfaction. However not only improvements in STEM, but also in the Arts (History, World Literature, Philosophy, Finance? and others). When you lack a well-rounded education, you don't see beyond your current situation. You start discovering more about the world, more about other people's plight or your own and you understand the human condition. You see that the world is beyond just your current situation. "People who do not know history will end up repeating it" (Some person I dont know)
2. Change in Black culture. I'm not the most educated on this but there needs to be a change in African American arts/music. There needs to be a change from just victimization, gangbanging and "money" culture. Yes it is true there's is system oppression. Yes it is also true that Blacks should be able to express their frustrations and anger at society through music. But it should be towards a goal to reform society or to be conducive towards society. Right now, there's a mindset of creating division or rage against society or the police. We should build communities not destroy them.
Anyways, I don't know what I'm saying lol. Just rambling and trying to get my thoughts out. Steps are 1. Improve Education 2. Improve Wealth Generation 3. Build stronger communities (maybe?)
> you can connect by being legitimately curious about differing interests as long as it's a culture that is open to different interests without using them as a defining characteristic.
100% agree with that. Differences shouldn't make you exclude other people. Like the example where people just ignore the cleaning staff. It just tells alot how the people there are privileged. I worked at an engineering firm and people generally do acknowledge the cleaning staff. They're people too regardless of their position or work.
Are you burnt out? Every person needs a break. Well in the end, programming is a means to an end. Sometimes people obsess and see the skill as the ends. Some others see it as a tool to achieve their goals. Anyways maybe take a break/vacation or something.
> However, it seems really wasteful and like a mis-allocation of resources to put the top performing silicon in devices that don't really need it
Semiconductor research requires a lot of capital. If Apple is providing that upfront capital at a higher rate, then that's great for TMSC. More capital for spearheading development. And with better and better yield at smaller node sizes, it'll trinkle down. 2 years later 5nm would become common place and can be used to produce chips for servers. It's just the question between now and a couple years later.
> Both of these things are great but also just not high on the list of problems humanity needs to solve.
At the end of the day, it's the market that determines innovation and R&D. More money for a specific product results in more money spent in researching and development. It's about what people need rather it's about what people want. Also not having a fan and improved battery life means less ewaste, smaller batteries and less electricity use.
> What I am trying to say is that, for the last few decades, it at least seemed like 'real' work drove semiconductor development.
First it was military spending that funded CPU development. Later on, it was enterprise because of companies had money. Now with cheaper and faster hardware, more and more people are able to get their hands on a PC. You can watch educational videos online. Talk to thousands of people or connect with relatives. You can do online webinars or shows. Heck, you can even learn languages on apps on your phone. In the end, mobile phones are a tool. They can be beneficial or detrimental on the use.
> mobile operating systems still have never matured to replace then so instead even Apple is bringing mobile software back to the traditional computer.
It's about centralizing software development between platforms. It's cheaper and easier to develop one software OS across platforms than to have MacOS and iOS separate. This might mean that later on your Ipad can run VScode.
> I can easily imagine a day where consumer level electronics are completely locked down and the only way to get a open/free platform is to buy server hardware - if that is even possible.
Its the opposite. The prices for all these microprocessors have been getting lower and lower while becoming exceeding more powerful. You can buy an integrated microcontroller with bluetooth and wifi modules for <$10. In fact, open computing has expanded due to cheaper cost to PCs and faster hardware. More people can afford to do software and hardware development. There's so many resources nowadays for open source development or even hobbyist tinkering of hardware. This is one of the best times you can be in for open computing.
Right now, I'm a junior software engineer at my company and I've been non-stop asking questions. This is what I notice after asking questions.
1. Most People Like Answering Questions
I notice that most often people are receptive to answering my questions. They like giving quite in-depth information about the project or certain parts of the code. Sometimes even more then what I was asking. In fact, sometimes they explain about parts I wouldn't be able to google or search up because it pertains specifically to the project.
2. Knowing when to stop.
Sometimes I notice some people do get annoyed at my questions so that's when I know that I should stop for the day. Knowing when to stop is also a skill to be developed over time.
3. Batching Questions
This both helped me to understand what I didn't know and be able to verbalize it. I write down my questions and 3 things happens in this process.
One result is that I discover the answer to my question. I was framing the question in the wrong way. I either know the answer or through framing the question realize what is the answer.
Second thing is just clarifying whether the question is something I am able to search or find on the web. This tells me it's that my knowledge on this topic or subject requires more research on my part.
Lastly, it displays that I respect the other individual's time. My working time is not worth the same value to the company, wage or impact as the senior engineer. Usually, they have more responsibilities and important tasks to delegate or manage. By batching together questions, they know that I made the effort to list these questions to ask at the same time.
All this is what I gather after 1 month of working at my company.
Edit: Also I stopped caring about looking competent. I feel confident in the fact that if I don't know something, I'll be able to find it or learn it. Rather than, being confident in my own ability to appear smart or look competent. That at the end of the day is more important to me. Competency in engineering is managing what you don't know and learning how to find the resources to tackle what you don't know.