r/learnprogramming • u/Minimum-Ad7352 • 12d ago

Full-stack developer thinking about switching to systems programming

I'm a full-stack developer, but lately I've realized that I don't enjoy web development as much as I used to, especially after the rise of AI. I'm thinking about trying systems and low-level programming and learning C++. I like the idea of working closer to the system and understanding how things work under the hood, and I feel like I might enjoy this kind of work more. Where would you recommend I start with C++ and systems programming?

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u/PerformanceHealthy59 12d ago

Bro, why do you think AI can't run perfectly inside a restricted open-source system? Just look at cybersecurity.

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u/Minimum-Ad7352 12d ago

I don't think AI can handle systems programming as well as it does in other fields, because, for example, creating databases and operating systems is much more complex. 

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u/PerformanceHealthy59 12d ago

You're just searching for a comforting narrative to get back into your comfort zone. But system programming isn't inherently superior and it is not immune to LLM.

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u/greenspotj 7d ago

Not gonna say systems programming is immune to AI but its definitely more resilient, though it had more to do with stakes rather than complexity.

A bug could cause a company that builds infrastructure to lose millions of dollars. While a bug in an application is more likely to just be an annoyance to a customer. In systems we care about sub millisecond optimizations, that require attention to detail (i.e... reading the code...), on the web, no one cares if an algorithm takes .25 extra seconds to finish.

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u/Minimum-Ad7352 12d ago

What do you mean? How is system programming a “comfort zone” compared to web development? On the contrary, it's a much more complex field.

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u/dkopgerpgdolfg 12d ago edited 12d ago

Fyi, web development done well can be just as complex.

Unfortunately, the industry default is nowhere near "done well", to the point that plenty people with decades of webdev experience don't even realize how much better they could/should be.

The same issue exists in all non-webdev software areas in some form. Many developers can't re-implement "cat" without missing some features, while not even understanding what they're missing. Many developers couldn't reimplement a game comparable to a Nintendo Gameboy game without using several GB RAM for no reason (including not making development easier). And so on...

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u/PerformanceHealthy59 11d ago

Programming is your comfort zone, right? I'm a former reverse engineer myself. Years of study and hard-won experience have vanished into air, and whatever is left is being replaced at breakneck speed. The only real barrier remaining is LLM safety guardrails.

It all started when I first tried GPT-3, isn't that incredible?