It is really easy to pick up languages and libraries with so much information being freely shared. IMHO that usually comes with less regard for proper rigor in exchange for fun and keeping interest.
Although, I think the vast majority of new programmers aren't working on things like Therac-25 machines, but instead on Flappy Bird, JavaScript library #749237, and Bob's Website. You don't really need much software design knowledge to push products at that level.
throwing together a website doesn't make you a hacker. allow me to rephrase.
using some tools a person built for you to throw together a website, and you using them together in exactly the manner that they were meant to be used makes you a user/consumer not a hacker.
quite a few of actual hackers i saw withered in university because they did what grad students did in their high school days at home.
i can tell you a lot of things that you use in production today even in your field is the result of a lot of these hackers you so disparage.
edit: rephrased last paragraph
Also note that the roles of "hacker" and "software developer/engineer" need not be mutually exclusive.
I was pointing out to the parent comment that someone who is not reasonably versed in proper software design, process, and documentation cannot just hack away at products such as Therac-25 anymore. At least, it would be much more difficult for them to do so and bring it to market successfully, due to all the regulatory red-tape.
why don't you rephrase your original text? had you said "these new programming hipsters" i wouldn't have argued with you. the truth is that everyone nowadays can program, which is why people get so defensive about that "discipline"
but you guys completely misunderstand the meaning behind the word hacking. so i had to correct it.
yeah, no, try again
get outside your bubble
It's obviously on a far different scale from software causing deaths, I'm not trying to make comparisons between the two. But the motivation of the software developer needs to be a little more moral than just 'will I be in trouble with the law?'
The kind of programmer that stores passwords in plaintext in a publicly-accessible database is not one that says, "I'm going to do this because it's faster." He or she doesn't even know that that could be a problem. Similarly, those hiring such a person are ignorant of what experience costs, and so they get what they paid for, even if they didn't make the conscious decision to make an insecure website.
(You don't see Google or Microsoft or Apple posting ads on freelancer sites for $5/hour jobs. They know the results they want cost more than that.)
It is not just a matter of developers' professional and personal integrity. We have to live with the consequences of bad software produced through the employment of amateurs, even if we, personally, care about doing a good job.
That is the way it has been since computers went commercial.