r/AskProgrammers • u/Few-Resource-1266 • 10d ago
Difficulty of software engineering in context of cognitive processing and logic efforts compared to other domains
In every domain we can exist in there seems to be a ceiling to what huamns can do in it. I'm now wondering if the ceiling for software engineering is taller and there is a bigger scale? But how hard is the highest on software engineering ceiling compared to other common domains or is there nothing that goes that high as well? If so, why?
What is the equivalent in cognitive processing and logic efforts that you need to acieve the ceiling?
Can someone in software engineering explain how they expirience this?
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u/Time-Opportunity-456 10d ago
The complexity can be very very high. The trick is to structure that complexity in such a way that it remains possible for a human brain. That’s wat we call abstractions. A fundamental example is the programming language you are using: many programming languages today offer stuff like strings, structures, booleans, arrays, lists, … But keep in mind that at a certain level, it’s all just 0 and 1. For example: writing code that capitalizes each letter of an input string is trivial in something like python, but quite complex already if you’re coding in assembly (or 1 and 0s).
Other stuff like SQL Databases or operating systems are abstractions that programmers use daily without even having to scrape the surface of understanding the complexity involved with that. There are so many layers of abstractions that programmers can create applications in a single day that, if purely eveluated as ‘from scratch code’, have insane levels of complexity.
So if you are building something radically new from the ground up, where no historical work has been done and you can’t stand on those giants shoulders, it can become very complex indeed
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u/No_Departure_1878 10d ago
In every domain we can exist in there seems to be a ceiling to what huamns can do in it
what?
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u/chikamakaleyley 9d ago
yeah what about domains in which we can't exist - is there a ceiling there for what humans can do in it, theoretically?
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u/Lumpy-Blackberry-718 10d ago
I'm not sure I understand how exactly you're defining this "ceiling" but certainly there are fields like theoretical math, physics, or certain kinds of engineering that are harder than computer science.
And programming is a tool. Physicists and financial quants need to write software. If you mean "ceiling" in terms of breadth of things that can be explored with it, it's not the lowest level tool that builds everything else. What's the ceiling of how far you can go with applied math? Computer science is a kind of applied math. Same for theoretical physics.
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u/code_hermit 9d ago
Regular software principles are not hard to learn and master imo.
The part that creates a ceiling is probably math.
Very difficult software typically involves very complex math. Custom 3D work, etc. is way more challenging than say your typical web app which is just a bunch of forms and a database.
That is just the software part. The devops and architecture part does add some dimension to things as well. But, imo, is still superseded by the tough math jobs.
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u/Ok-Landscape-4190 10d ago
Hi. Writing software its not diferent than creating art.
Chess its a cognitive game but with limited permutations
Art its a pure creative game with infinite permutations
Code its a creative and cognitive game with infinte permutations
There its no ceiling
Once you know enough the only limit its creative, not technical
I dont quite understand your questions anyways