> "if software engineers only understood hardware better we might have smartphones that last a month on a charge and never crash".

I mean... is that wrong, though? In 2024, C++ will still segfault -- 45 years after it's creation in 1979. No one steering the language seems to be bothered by it. Even Bjarne Stroustrup works in the financial industry now raking in the large paychecks.

Turns out, I'm pretty cynical of software as well.

Look, I'm not saying "Software is the utmost gloriousness that will save humanity!" But what I am saying is that hardware does seem to have fallen well behind software in terms of tooling. VHDL and Verilog are still the tools used to describe hardware today as they were 30 years ago.

If you can fix the barrier to entry into hardware, you'll probably increase the demand for custom hardware.