Not all heroes wear capes. Not unlike how our protectors – parents, government branches/departments, teachers, dogs – directly and indirectly shield us from threats we aren’t even necessarily aware of, software engineers share a similar duty.
Admittedly there are plenty of disgraceful web sites and applications out there that, without a doubt, cause the people more harm than good; but imagine what sort of rubbish we’d be swimming in if it weren’t for the brilliant, bold, beautiful software engineering that gave us all the Google things, the Cloud, social media apps, messaging apps that sync across devices, podcast/video/music apps, money transfer apps – just to name a few. Without highly skilled and dedicated software engineers around the world constantly creating, sharing, debugging, and finessing code, we would be plagued with terrible sites like spiritairlines.com, any national park website, or any DPS website without the frequent and intermittent cool, refreshing feeling of easily completing an action in one of the aforementioned examples. Just as an aside, I fully realize we would have much worse problems, but have chosen to elaborate on the lighter (perhaps lightest) one.
I have experienced the horror of trying to book the same flight so many times on spiritairlines.com that I thought either I was insanely incapable or my credit card info was stolen and account frozen. I have desperately combed through national park websites in search of very basic information only to once again conclude that I was insanely incapable. I have begrudgingly visited the Texas DPS site out of necessity, only to be coldly greeted by the austere, unsophisticated design.
Granted, these web sites certainly would not exist without software engineering, but we are so far past the point of making an argument that web development/software engineering is great, period, because that goes without saying. I don’t want to become a developer to simply participate by trade, just keeping the engine running; but rather, to excel and thrive by helping push something so foundational and powerful to continually reach its full potential.
Realistically, those insults are tiny blips when I think about the manner in which Google Maps has enhanced my quality of life. Because of Google Maps, I don’t get truly lost, and I actively save time. I don’t lose important files thanks to the Cloud. It is hard not to keep in touch with friends and family owing to social media and messaging apps. Culture and education are constantly at my fingertips thanks to multimedia apps, and finally; isn’t it awesome to be able to just get one check and Venmo rather than accumulate all of the bad karma by asking your server for seventeen separate checks?
Maybe I am alone in reacting so viscerally to poor versus exceptional quality software design. Or perhaps it’s a ubiquitous, dare I say – compelling – qualification among developers. Regardless, the notion that coding is a skill that pretty much anyone can develop, hone, and leverage is very exciting. The fact is, as opposed to practicing medicine or law, or even doing a different type of engineering work where a very specific set of credentials is required, with web development, skill and potential translate quickly into becoming functional without the added bottle necking of serving time. Additionally, there are tons of different reputable coding bootcamps, not to mention the seemingly unlimited free online resources for learning to code.
Many times a day, I have a software experience that instantly helps or fails to help me. I suspect that my feelings as a software user are more pronounced than that of the average person. Meanwhile, software engineering as a field is, in many ways, open and inclusive. I am confident that after about a year of dedicated, hard work I can become a qualified and functional developer. Bearing these things in mind enables me to believe that I can truly and realistically make a positive impact on something that I feel connected to and care about greatly.