I'm literally considering a career switch from software engineering to electrical engineering and electronics, and naturally going back to school, because the AI and the way it's used in writing software has sucked out all the meaning in it for me.

▲ acedTrex 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Absolutely the same boat here as well sadly. As I sit here reviewing another PR with

    // do the thing
    doThing()

dotted everywhere, I am very much over it.

▲ vsgherzi 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

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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globular-toast 2 hours ago | parent [-]

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.

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nextos an hour ago | parent [-]

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...

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vsgherzi an hour ago | parent [-]

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?

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nextos an hour ago | parent [-]

> [...] 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.

	▲	vsgherzi an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Noted, perhaps I'll investigate as a possible next career step. Thanks!

▲ InitialLastName 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Meaningful or not, that's a lot of work and money for a pay cut, fewer options, and worse job prospects [0].

[0] Most of the new EE Grads I see go into software engineering.

	▲	xqb64 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I mean, it's not like I'm going to forget how to write code any time soon. I'm currently recovering from the n-th tough burnout, and I feel like I need a shift toward something new and meaningful. When it comes to job opportunities, from my perspective, knowing the entire stack (not in the webdev sense, but rather both hardware and software) makes you highly attractive on the market, in both worlds. So, while I genuinely can't predict what I'll end up doing 5 years from now, I do feel like it's time to familiarize myself with the other side of the entire stack.

▲ Etheryte 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

That's one possible way to look at it. The other, perhaps more positive way to look at it, is that similar to autocomplete, AI-assisted tools have made the boring parts less boring and left more space for the interesting bits. I use them every now and then for chores and such which I would put off otherwise, but there is certainly no shortage of interesting problems that they can't tackle. Now I just have more time to focus on those.

	▲	xqb64 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I'll admit that I'd used github copilot while I worked on one of my projects, and I couldn't help it but notice a rather significant cognitive decline whenever I set out to take over and start hammering out the code myself. I just can't allow cognitive declines.

▲ ge96 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Yeah I'm the same, I enjoy thinking of a system of things, doing it, not typing a couple of commands and a bunch of code is generated. It's not the rote process but feeling like I worked for it/doing it. Similar argument is "why buy milk" you can get a cow, milk it yourself, kind of thing. Which I see that, some people don't care what the code looks like, does it work.

	▲	ge96 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Tangent: reality perception is funny, like why hike, you could just watch someone else hike... I think jewelry is worthless (waste of money to buy) but others don't that kind of thing.