[dlcarrier]

Whenever I finish a software project and return to electrical engineering, where I have to worry about parasitic capacitance, inductance, thermal noise, propagation delays, and pages of datasheets for something as simple as a single transistor, I realize how much easier and more satisfying electrical engineering is than programming, where I have to deal with truly unpredictable phenomena like libraries, APIs, and development environments so bloated they make Quartus and Vivado seem fast.

It turns out quantum mechanics and pages of empirical analysis are a plus, because they are well documented and everything behaves as expected. When I program, I spend more time reverse engineering other software, to try and make sense of the lacking, outdated, and often outright incorrect documentation than I spend writing my own software. I can't spend any extended period of time doing that and still keep my sanity.

[sky2224]

> It turns out quantum mechanics and pages of empirical analysis are a plus

I think that also has to do with the fact that if you do something wrong in electrical engineering, things can literally go boom.

A majority of software only does that in a figurative sense, but in return we get very lazy docs, practices, etc. Somewhat of a double edged sword.

[threekindwords]

Fascinating perspective, one that I never considered prior to reading this comment. Thank you.