[nommm-nommm]

I do webdev and I solve real and unique business problems. The web is just a convenient frontend for our users. Our backend has complicated data processing and solves unique problems. I know you said most and not all but just giving a counter example.

[nickpsecurity]

It's not really a counter example because TeMPOraL's claim applied to the majority. Following the resulting advice of using whatever gets the job done quickly (eg copy/paste) will pay off for the vast majority of developers in that space. Your example is a red herring here as the comment just wasn't about the minority doing original stuff.

Good for you that you ended up in one of those positions, though. Probably enjoy your job more. :)

[nommm-nommm]

I don't think its the majority outside of Silicon Valley though. I am very far removed from the Valley so the examples given look nothing like I've personally seen anywhere but I can see how that can be the case in the Valley from what I hear/see in the "news."

I've personally never seen anything that can be described as "regurgitating the same CRUD for different customers" in my career as a webdev and certainly not 90%. There is of course wiring standard components together but that's surface level stuff, the guts are not standard components.

That's just my experiences for what it's worth.

And, yes, I'm very blessed to enjoy my job and believe me I don't take that for granted.

Going back in the thread I honestly don't think that reaching for Google and SO as your first impulse will deteriorate your ability to find your own solutions in the long run. Not by itself anyways. If the problem is standard then those are not problems you should be implementing your own solutions for anyways and Google/SO are great for finding answers to standard problems. Copy-pasta is great for syntax and boilerplate code.

If the problem is not standard I learn from Google, I don't just copy-pasta, I look at how other people have solved similar problems and use that as a basis of creating a new solution.

I can see how people who don't want (or can't) think for themselves can fall into the copy-pasta whatever they happen find without truly understanding. In that case Google/SO isn't the problem - it just makes the problem more visible. These people will never be good engineers.

[nickpsecurity]

"I don't think its the majority outside of Silicon Valley though. I am very far removed from the Valley so the examples given look nothing like I've personally seen anywhere but I can see how that can be the case in the Valley from what I hear/see in the "news.""

Whereas I hadn't heard of the problem in the Valley as they're always riding one wave or fad after another. The people that report the issues I described are almost exclusively outside the Valley or startup scene mostly working for mid-sized to large companies without much IT innovation. Reading comments on many programming and job sites makes me think they're the majority (or just vocal majority).

Might be different in your area or the types of companies you work for. Most I know in banking, retail, logistics, manufacturing, hospitality, and services firms... a huge chunk of job market... do CRUD style apps and have lots of legacy systems they expand on rather than replace. Lots of boring work.

Does vary by industry, area, and technology stack, though. Interesting to see yours is mostly interesting, custom code instead of throw-together apps many get stuck with. Honestly, though, I think the SO use is less about CRUD than the information overload of various libraries and frameworks where people constantly run into issues due to lack of understanding/experience.