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Comment by steveinator | Hacker News Reader

I really wish people didn't spread this kind of message. Think job security guys! Come on!

I am all for job security, but I am also for good code and programming fundamentals. I absolutely hate it when I have to edit someone else's code that is filled with bugs and improper use of basic functions just because said person cut and pasted bad code from the internet.

Also, a key aspect of a good programmer is experience. If kids start early say for example at age 12, by the time they are 18, they have 6 years experience already. Think about the things you can do with that much experience? It could lead to innovations in software far beyond what we see right now.

I say "bah-humbug" to job security. That means that you just don't know or care about your craft. If you were really "1337" job security would be the last thing on you mind. You would actually be running the show and working on amazing products/solutions.

I'm a senior developer and I teach my methods to my colleagues all the time. It doesn't hurt me, but helps the team and the cause immensely. It makes going to work much more enjoyable when everyone is on the same page and pushing each other.

> I say "bah-humbug" to job security. That means that you just don't know or care about your craft.

I'm twenty-five years old. My wife and I have four cats, a home, two cars, and more than six figures of combined student loan debt.

I earn 75% of our total income as a Software Engineer. We can't survive on my wife's income alone and we don't have any family members to fall back on if times get tough.

So you, a senior web developer at JPC, might say "bah-humbug" to job security, but I, for the reasons listed above, do not.

I think the parent comment is absolutely right, more competition in the industry can only be a good thing from a societal perspective, as the highest quality workers take the jobs from the poor performers. Obviously from your perspective it might be worrisome, especially (and I apologize for getting personal) with all that stuff coupled with student loans, but surely it's a net societal good.

I was responding to the specific portion of the parent comment I quoted, nothing more.

Did you start out with the two cars before getting into student loan debt? Following that on with auto loans, maintenance and a mortgage isn't helping your financial independence.

Our mortgage is less than what our rent was at our apartment.

We owned one car prior to university and took out an auto loan to get my wife her own car.

We work in opposite directions and we each have a commute time of ~20-25 minutes, so moving closer to her job would increase my commute time and moving closer to my job would increase hers.

Our schedules are too different to make carpooling a possibility anyway. Also, there's no way to get to either of our jobs using public transportation.

Most of these people would not become developers. But think of the benefits if everyone had a brief exposure to how a computer works, or a realistic view of it should/can do. It may even cause everyone to regularly update their browsers as they now see the importance of it - we may even see the death of IE ;)

Do you really think the people who are leading this movement care about your job security?

That is wrong attitude.

Honest question - why? How getting more people into automation business will benefit people who are in it now (us), or the economy (arguably automation makes jobs and whole industries redundant). I am all for encouraging people to study science and mathematics, but I don't understand the value of getting more people to just "code".

Large, skilled populations bring great advances. In a world with hundreds of programmers, you get FORTRAN and specialized computers solving defense problems. In a world with hundreds of thousands, you get everything from smartphones and video games to industrial robots.

I'm not worried about job security. But I am excited about what armies of coders can invent.

People should be educated enough to know what they can expect from a computer - by learning coding they would get a deeper view into those things - not everyone would become a professional coder. And even then, every good professional create even more jobs - you can't do everything by yourself even if you know how too. Also it is for greater good - I think it is a step to happier society with more decent life.

lool

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