Jul 20, 2025
My qualifications are nothing spectacular. I am a consultant who’s focuses are on the fortune 200 industry and provides professional services on a select set of technologies. I have a deep passion for software, specifically, open source software that I devote many hours too, outside of my 9-5. I have come across an issue that troubles me amongst senior engineers that I hope to change in people I get the opportunity to come in contact with. That issue is the pessimism of Veterans in the field of technologies that they begrudgingly have to work with.
Fresh Computer Science majors are thrown into a world of possibilities. SWE at FAANG is all that we hope for, but more often than not we work jobs at Insurance companies, Banking, or Consultancies as a gun for hire. In these roles we typically don’t develop something entirely new. We are software plumbers. Pump data from one place to another. Do some analysis and/or transform that data to be sent to another software’s API to be consumed, used and displayed. The majority of the world is a black box only for seniors to touch. Though the plumbing is often unique and necessary, it pales to the effort of architecting and building the two technologies we are connecting. In our minds, we could build prototypes of these technologies, but encompassing the vast scope and depth of some of these projects are out of reach and not something we feel could ever be warranted in our roles.
I love the company that I work for and have a few seniors that I admire for their mastery in a domain of knowledge. They often spout information that I can follow and understand but wouldn’t come to as my first mode of thought. I rely on them as a Easy Button so to speak. Instead of using Gipty (Chat GPT) as a source of truth, I can talk and work with someone who has domain expertise on something I do not, to give me good first steps on a problem I’m required to solve. This is fantastic and it feels as if I’m speed running years of hard fought knowledge they had to gain. But I felt something shift in me. The questions became less of how can I solve this problem to why is XYZ company so silly not to implement it this way from the start.
The title of this section is tongue in cheek, but I do believe an existence in a world that contains libraries of millions of lines of code, available for free, rots the brains of people who use these technologies. Every generation stands on the shoulders of giants. I like to think of projects like Chris Sawyers RollerCoaster Typhoon that was written in assembly (there were advances well beyond this point but it was something I heard early on my career that inspired me). Even this project stood on the shoulders of giants who created LED’s, Vacuum tubes and hell even the furnace that began smelting these sorts of materials. Even as a “low level” assembly project, it stood on years of precedent and research.
I often hear comments on specific mew technologies that have been a pain to implement. There will be comments such as “I can’t believe they did it this way”, “Why couldn’t the do it this way”, “If they just did it this way it would make the whole process so much easier”, “If the software wasn’t so stupid it could just do…”, “I can’t believe they’re too dumb to…”.
I believe the best and most popular projects like Linux distorted the view of what software “should” be. I’m not suggesting that we hold our selves to a lower standard but I am suggesting that tools that are purpose built remain just that, purpose built. Some tools are not made for us plumbers; who have 3 month contracts to fulfill for some order of work. Some tools are hard and they are hard for a reason. Because the problems they attempt to solve are even harder.
Open source software consumerism damages our expectations. You go to McDonald’s, and you have a dairy allergy. You order no Cheese. Sometimes you get cheese, but most of the time you don’t. McDonald’s does this for every item and combination on their menu. Be it onions, pickles, lettuce, tomato you name it. Software attempts to do the same thing, but just like McDonalds it is simply impossible to get it right for every circumstance because humans are imperfect. I suggest that we shift our mindset from a place of software consumerism, to a place of understanding and appreciation.
As a simple intermediate, all I can do is be in awe that any of this works at all. I have so much passion about good software because of its ability to help me meet my goals and learn. I even have passion for intermediate software because it strives and attempts to do the same. All in all, most open source software attempts comes from a place of learning, giving, and occasionally excellence.