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Comment by vsgherzi | Hacker News Reader

I'm in the same boat, I'm hoping firmware / embedded might be better in this regard due to the inherit constraints. If not then EE is probably the only other option. Anyone else have thoughts on this? I'm craving a more civil engineering approach to rigor rather than the mess of modern software. Perhaps that means software just isn't for me.

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I'm definitely wanting to do something with more of a civil engineering approach to rigour. More and more I think software is full of children who don't care and don't know the meaning of responsibility.

Maybe formal methods have a chance of becoming mainstream now [1]?

This would increase the rigor of software engineering and put it on par with civil engineering.

Some niches like real-time embedded systems are already pretty much the same.

[1] https://martin.kleppmann.com/2025/12/08/ai-formal-verificati...

I doubt it, I feel like it might improve shops that already care and are already creating with rigor. I don't think it'll raise the bar for the avg shop. However, perhaps that's just be being cynical. By real time embedded is the same do you mean the same in the sense that they are just as poor in quality?

> [...] the same in the sense that they are just as poor in quality?

I mean some real-time software for critical embedded systems has an incredible level of rigor, making heavy use of static analysis, model checking, and theorem proving.

Noted, perhaps I'll investigate as a possible next career step. Thanks!

I think the last thing this world needs is programmers bringing their particular style of “””engineering””” to important things like bridges. Can’t wait to hear about the 5-9s of uptime on the Golden Gate.

...why do you think this comment is warranted?

Because programmers probably think it'll be a similar field, but it's different. It has correct and incorrect ways of doing things, strongly enforced. You're not inventing new shit, you're reapplying old shit constantly. Old shit that works.

Many think writing software is engineering, but it couldn't be further from the truth.

edit: to clarify, trying to get people to realize the grass isn't always greener, and both sides are better off for it.

How many programmers-turned-X do you have experience with?

Billions

No response, so I assume this brain dead comment is a China bot.

I think you're missing the point of my comment.

Your comment feels unwarranted because other engineering professions have guardrails, because they recognize that people will die if they don't. Your comment is implying that a software engineer can simply apply their existing (lack of) guardrails when that's probably not the case.

No, my comment is implying that if you enjoy the relative freedom of writing software in new and interesting and novel ways, you probably will not enjoy copy-pasting buildings or bridges or whatever again and again and again.

People can easily die due to software, and there are still few (any?) regulations in almost every single industry, plus no way to assign accountability. If a bridge collapses, it's pretty simple to figure out whose fault it is.

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