[indymike]

> Should computer programmers also shoulder responsibility and be insured like doctors?

Computer programmers aren't authorized and licensed by the government to inflict violence like police officers. Computer programmers are not licensed by the government to prescribe dangerous medications or perform surgeries.

[throwaway48476]

Computer programmers have ruined plenty of lives from the post office scandal to the gambling industry.

[chipdart]

> Computer programmers have ruined plenty of lives from the post office scandal to the gambling industry.

That's like saying the cleaning crew at the local police station have ruined plenty of lives due to police brutality.

[smegger001]

The post office scandal wasn't the programers fault, the fault was on the post for prosecution of individuals for something that was the result of a known bug that they chose to try and cover up instead of getting it fixed. Its also the fault of the law makers for passing law that assumes the computer is always right unless the accused can show otherwise but not letting the accused have access to the program needed.

[ffgjgf1]

It’s almost like blaming Glock for police shootings…

It has nothing to do programmers and everything to do with Post Office’s management. If they bought buggy software they had years to seek recourse for that.

[toss1]

And yet many computer programmers and hardware developers, with or without any kind of license or certification, write or design systems that are critical to life and limb; everything including medical systems, airplane systems, automotive systems including drive-by-wire and 'self-driving, engineering systems for design of life critical structures, etc., etc., etc. It's not all low-consequence or recoverable like front end web dev or accounting software. And conversely, many actions of physicians and cops are inconsequential (while many are also life-or-death).

[ffgjgf1]

Ordinary developers are effectively just construction workers with a bit more creative freedom.

In al critical systems they are just one part of a chain and all their work has to be verified/validated by at least a few additional actors.

A policeman can just decide to randomly murder someone (and often face no repercussions). While a construction worker or a software developer can cause significant harm as well they almost never have near complete autonomy.

[zdragnar]

To use a similar example, in my state, you can build your own custom car or airplane from scratch and get it approved, no mechanic or engineering license needed.

Also, if you aren't working as an engineer for another company but are self employed, it's not a bad idea to get some form of errors and omissions insurance, which is comparable to the malpractice insurance doctors get.

[john_the_writer]

I have a note on my desk "If there is a bad tech option." It's a reminder not to get mad when my boss or their boss decides something stupid. Like using GraphQL to upload large amounts of data. Or deciding a 5 person team should be developing micro-services. Or moving everything to tailwinds.

As a developer I don't have the power to stop these bad decisions. I just have to stew in them. Holding me responsible for the bad code that gets written to kludge past the bad decisions.

Better I suppose than the company that had me build a rails app to move millions of records an hour, hosted on their personal windows laptop. (yeah rails on windows)

[codetrotter]

> Or moving everything to tailwinds.

What’s wrong with Tailwind CSS?

[throwaway48476]

Another problem is how much companies exaggerate the effectiveness of their systems and don't share the false positive rate.