this post was submitted on 09 May 2024
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[–] [email protected] 50 points 7 months ago (5 children)

And this is why I will never work in biotech, finance or (especially) military software engineering

I don't want the risk of something I do causing direct harm to another person

[–] [email protected] 13 points 7 months ago

I have only written potentially life-threatening code once in my life. It had to do with voltage/current regulation in the firmware of a high-powered instrument used by field workers at the company where I work. It was a white-knuckled week I spent on just a single page of code, checking and re-checking it countless times and unit testing it in every conceivable way I could imagine.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 7 months ago (3 children)

In the military, direct harm is the only goal. Not quite like the others.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago

I think I could get very nervous coding for the military, depending on what sort of application I was working on. If it were some sort of administrative database, that doesn't sound so bad. If it were a missile guidance system, on man! A single bug and there goes a village full of civilians. Even something without direct human casualties could be nerve-wracking. Like if it were your code which bricked a billion-dollar military satellite.

Speaking of missile guidance systems, I once met someone who worked a stint for a military contractor. He told me a story about a junior dev who discovered an egregious memory leak in a cruise missile's software. The senior dev then told him "Yeah, I know about that one. But the memory leak would take an hour before it brings the system down and the missile's maximum flight time is less than that, so no problem!" I think coding like that would just drive me into some OCD hell.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

yeah. doing a bad job could even save lives. it would be a moral duty to screwup /s (yes I know that is not how it works)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

Oh, I thought you were supposed to be protecting my country. I guess that oil money is too tempting

[–] best_username_ever 6 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

That’s what I thought before but it doesn’t matter. In medical devices you need good programmers and there are a fuckton of rules and tests to make sure that devices are safe. It’s also very regulated and usually well planned.

Medical companies are the best for this because we’re all accountable directly or indirectly and we do our best. I know I would not work for another kind of coding job because they would all feel too random.

I know mistakes can happen, but it’s the best environment you can work in if you’re a developer. Also you learn a lot and are surrounded with good devs who will make you better.

Anyway, I’m not trying to convince you but we need people who doubt and could be careful. It’s not at every job but usually it’s: planning is good, overtime is not acceptable because it shows bad planning, tests are everywhere (all kinds of tests), merge requests are serious business (your merge request can sit for weeks before being integrated), doc is central and you have to be a part of it, etc.

Last but not least you can still find the PDF of the IEC 62304 which shows every step that should be made to write medical software, and it could make you a better developer even if you’re not working in that field.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago