You Are Not a Software Engineer

You are not a software engineer. You are a blue-collar tech worker. You use tools crafted by others. You learn just the right amount about those tools so you can complete your tasks. You don't know how CI/CD pipelines work, you just learn how to create stages. You don't know how your frontend actually works, you just learned to use the tool called "React". You also don't know what an API is, you learned how to create one with FastAPI. Containers? You don't know what the benefits of multi-stage containers are because you don't care. And you don't care because a single-stage Dockerfile gives you the same end result as a multi-stage... just slower. Kubernetes? All you know is to restart pods and re-apply YAML files. And this is enough... for a senior blue-collar tech worker. What about the 3500 lines of code you wrote for your new #buildinpublic app? It works, right? Well, it will work until your code becomes so bad you can't read it and you get lost... or overwhelmed... and ditch the project. - If you are tasked to work on a new container engine, you would not be able to. - If you are tasked to work on a database engine, you would not be able to. - If you are tasked to increase the speed of a complex query, you would not be able to. Because you don't understand how the tools you use work – you just learned how to use them. And that makes you reliant. Stop being a blue-collar tech worker. You don't have much time.

The image is a text-based rant aimed at developers who use modern software tools without understanding how they work internally. It contrasts practical tool usage with deeper engineering knowledge, arguing that relying on React, FastAPI, containers, Kubernetes, and YAML makes a developer vulnerable when facing unfamiliar systems or complex problems. The joke is an exaggerated gatekeeping reaction to the idea of a “blue-collar tech worker,” often shared humorously in programming discussions about abstraction, low-code skills, and software engineering elitism.

• @gentoomemes / 15230 2024-12-18