I am skeptical by birth. From what I see, Information Technology is both massed and messed up. It indeed solves many world problems but also brings more other problems too. It kinda became a single point of failure by itself.
Trend after trend. Best practices keep coming to the plates like in a big buffet. How come people can chew or digest it all? People often said “Less is More”, but seeing how it comes with more words, more action, and more implementation, I’m even not sure what is less now.
Really, I am not a big fan of technology trends but what can I do? I am a software engineer and I must catch up or I can’t make a living. However, the trend of technology is a trend in the world, and I’m so grateful for how it slapped right to my face. Yet I keep questioning my own existence.
I told to my friends, “To be a good engineer, just 2 things are required: Hard Skill and Exposure.” My friends laugh, but I believe some may agree. Information Technology is a big world and ocean of knowledge, without such exposure, strangers maybe look down on you. This is what I felt for quite some time. There is really no room for low-profile engineers. In the end, how much people pay you is based on your profile, not your real experience/knowledge/skills. Of course, what we have done in the past is a solid ink in the paper, yet I am skeptical that some of the engineer-celebrities may be over-rated.
People may think that it’s obvious what is right or wrong in the tech industry, not possible to lie over it. Not possible to deny if something is broken, however, there are hundreds of doubts beneath a single working system. You must see how fierce the engineers fight each other in order to deliver the perfect system. First, they try to kill each other with common sense until common is not common again and the senses start losing their sense, then they will take out a heavy vocabulary, the fancy name, a big spoon of design principles with spicy concepts and theory to choke the opponent. Some young and stubborn may keep struggling but they can never win against “real experience” with mere words. In this very arena, we are growing.
So what is called an Engineer is a unique combination of philosopher, magician, and artist. Engineer is the philosopher with wisdom and how they stand for their belief. An Engineer is also a magician, for the trick and problem solving, that no one understands how come it happen. But within their heart, the Engineer is an artist, no one actually appreciates his work other than himself. People don’t care about quality, they only care about the quantity, how many features, and when it’s done. The true engineer keep working on his code to make the Mona Lisa, at least this is what I believed.
The spectrum of the skill itself is really wide, it does not make sense to compare apple to apple for engineers, even if they’re working with the same language and the same projects, we can’t find who is the greater. Everyone is struggling on their way and on the journey of never-stop learning. Some dig deeper into the domain they are interested to become an expert between the experts. Others became kind of a politician, standing up for the engineers and accommodating the company side. For people like me, I just code for a living. And coding is never a cheap job. The name itself explains how important it is, “Source Code” means the beginning (source) of everything (the systems). Yes, we are the truth seeker.
