[onion2k]

...but instead is about mixing all his CS knowledge ( Software/System Architecture , OSI Model , POSIX etc... ) to come up with the best possible solution to solve an issue.

The majority of software development is essentially blue collar work now. You don't need a CS degree to make a mobile app or a JS-driven web page. At least 50% of developers haven't used a POSIX library in their entire career. They probably don't know what POSIX is. Software development is mostly glueing together other people's code in ways that don't trip you up later. We'll always need some of the low-level clever coders to build the foundation libraries we use, but that doesn't mean every developer has to be one of those people, or even capable of being one of those people.

And the thing is ... I think this is great. Making software is fun, comfortable desk work that loads of people should have the opportunity to do. Given the demand for new applications we need to make the barriers to working as a developer as low as possible.

[rebeccaskinner]

I've been saying the same thing about a lot of development being blue collar work for years now, and I have mixed feelings about it. I think it's great that there's at least another skilled labor job out there that's well paying (for now) and accessible to people, but the way it's manifesting itself is also reenforcing the same sort of gatekeeping, double standards, and shibboleths that have kept people from moving up the ladder for a long time.

In particular, for those of us who came up through development 10+ years ago but didn't get formal CS training, we're often being shuffled into these blue collar jobs even though we've put the time and effort into developing all of the CS skills that we'd need for the more sophisticated jobs. I went to a trade school for a non-CS degree, then spent over a decade writing everything from kernel code and device drivers to novel software exploits to designing and implementing video codecs, compiler toolchains, type systems, and large scale distributed systems. With the rising tide of bootcamps, all of that still matters, and there are still some good opportunities out there, but the pool of opportunities for interesting and fulfilling work is shrinking rapidly as the volume of jobs doing devops, mobile and web frontends, or menial node.js crud applications has been growing exponentially.

[gaius]

The majority of software development is essentially blue collar work now.

And like lots of blue-collar work companies are scrambling to offshore it to the cheapest locations and don’t care about quality because it’s all disposable.

I could not in good faith recommend this to anyone now, become a plumber or a nurse, that’s not going offshore anytime soon.

[austenallred]

People have been saying that for 20 years, and yet most programmers I know (even outside of the Bay Area) are making well into the six figures.

[onion2k]

So are plumbers in Kensington (an expensive Borough in London). Wealthy businesses and customers pay their staff a lot regardless of the job.