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Big Tech Killed the Golden Age of Programming

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128 points taylorlunt | 1 comments | 30 Jul 25 14:58 UTC | HN request time: 0.198s | source
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zwnow ◴[30 Jul 25 15:04 UTC] No.44735172[source]▶
It also caused the "Golden Age of Programming". It's only been a golden age because of high salaries for relatively low effort. So if their needs change, obviously the industry changes. This article has nothing to say really.
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rkozik1989 ◴[30 Jul 25 15:11 UTC] No.44735280[source]▶
>It's only been a golden age because of high salaries for relatively low effort.

Money is how you define a Golden Age of Programming? I consider the late 1990s and early 2000s more of a Golden Age, and my reasons for it have nothing to do with making money. The time was of Golden Age because that's when programming became more accessible to the masses. Yes it wasn't without its fault, namely with regards to cyber security, but people all of the world suddenly were able to learn how to code and all the needed was an Internet connection.

Frankly, all this nonsense about money, total compensation, etc. is the cancer that killed programming.

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afpx ◴[30 Jul 25 16:01 UTC] No.44735939[source]▶
Of all the impressive software developers I had pleasure to meet before 2012, I never met one who did it for money. They loved their work, the craft, the science, and sheer joy of the creative process. That culture ended quickly pretty around 2012-15, but I never figured out why.
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1. freedomben ◴[30 Jul 25 17:24 UTC] No.44737010[source]▶
I think it was the rise of SaaS and major-scale big tech. That was also the point where structure sucked a lot of the fun out of it by converting SWEs into code factory workers by removing most of the forms of artistic expression from it (yes SWEs aren't always the best UI designers or product managers or program managers, but I think it was a mistake to remove them entirely from the equation. Regardless whether it was a mistake, it really sucked the joy out of it for many people, myself included).