IonicFrog

What industry do you work in? I would focus on that. The truth is that programing is somewhat of a commodity, and a lot of your value is going to come from industry knowledge.

Dude interviewed some people that did both software and other forms of engineering. Vast majority said software engineering is real engineering.

These are a few things that stood out to me.

In software engineering the gap between tradecraft and engineering is a lot smaller than the other engineering fields like electricians and electrical engineers.

Software engineering can iterate faster because it's cheap. If civil engineers could iterate like software engineers they would. New modeling tools are allowing this.

A lot of physical engineering defects are being fixed with software. 737 Max was given as an example where the new engine configuration made the plane unstable and it was fixed in software.

A lot of things can be learned from the different fields. All the other engineering fields wish they had version control. Software engineering needs more very focused deep dive books like this the other engineering fields have. Ex: https://www.amazon.com/First-Snap-Fit-Handbook-3E-Attachments/dp/1569905959

Don't worry about Linux, and don't try to over complicate things. If you are set on going the Linux route, get a Raspberry Pi. It will give him something really flexible and cheap to experiment with later on.

Look into modded Minecraft. There is a mod called Computer Craft where you can write programs in Lua. One of the things that makes scratch so good for kids is that the results are instantly visible. This is important for kids.

https://www.curseforge.com/minecraft/mc-mods/cc-tweaked

There are programs to control your reactor > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9fC3khXuj8

Unmodded Minecraft has Redstone where you can build logic gates.

Outside of what you already have check into a maker space or a computer club at school. Here in Atlanta there is https://www.codeninjas.com. Maybe there is something similar in your area.

Maybe this is helpful. https://imgur.com/a/TNpqz

If you find any additional information please share it with the rest of us. I have a really yellowed AppleVision 850 in the project pile. It's too big to redrobright and get an even result.

I'm on a team of 5 and we don't have an on call rotation since developers are not prod ops. But in a sense we are all on call all the time. The NOC has our phone numbers and if we are needed for something urgent we will get a call or a text for things like helping prod ops troubleshoot an issue if they get stuck. My boss has texted me while I was on vacation before. Usually it's a quick question for something obscure. Once it was an escalation from a senior executive. I don't have to respond if I'm on vacation, but if I'm getting a call they really need help with something. It also is a good opportunity to lay a guilt trip on your boss that results in a few reward points. Never had to actually log into anything though.

We also have BCP, business continuity plan, events. I work for a company that provides a lot of critical infrastructure. If the BCP event is really nasty, like a natural disaster, and our team needs 24/7 representation on the bridge, we take turns and will relieve each other. You won't be expected to help out on a BCP event while on vacation.

Besides BCP we usually have to be available for certain production changes. Like a few months ago I had a DNS and load balancer change done. I wasn't doing the work, but the team making the change wanted me available between 3 and 5 am to validate the change.

If I were paid hourly things would be more formal. I would get overtime(1.5 x hourly rate) + comp time. Since I'm salaried I just sleep in the next day. Our schedules are really flexible. We basically need to be mostly available for meetings for around 4 hours a weekday from late morning to late afternoon, and complete our projects on time. It was like this in the before times. Back then I would go into the office around 11 am for our daily standup. Get lunch with some team mates. Do some afternoon meetings then go home, and do my more focused work at home after dinner time. Most of my team mates did something similar.

Rest of the compensation is your typical American senior software engineer salary with a 10% to 20% bonus, 7 weeks pto, health insurance, life insurance, short term and long term disability insurance, 401k with 6% match, pension, retirement health insurance, pet health insurance, can use the corporate travel agent for personal travel. I actually like this perk a lot. You still pay for personal travel but it means a lot of discounts and upgrades. We also get to keep our various travel points.

About twice a week we would go to the computer lab filled with Apple IIes. Usually we had to play Number Munchers, Word Munchers, or some other game to reenforce whatever we learned in class. After we finished the game in the lesson plan, we could then play whatever educational game we wanted. Oregon Trail was a popular choice because nothing was funnier than having the game say a classmate had died or broke a leg. And the hunting and rafting mini games were the closest to arcade games.

Also keep in mind that the only exposure most of the teachers had to a computer were the mainframe terminals in the school's office or the computer lab. MECC put together a lot of software and training for teachers. A school building out an Apple II based computer lab with a bunch of MECC software was as close to turnkey as they could get at the time. The documentation for Oregon Trail or Odell Lake gives you an idea of what it was like.

http://www.mecc.co/history/the-oregon-trail---a-157/mecc_a-157_oregon_trail.pdf

http://www.mecc.co/science/odell-lake---a-192/mecc_a-192_odell_lake.pdf

I’m in that weird group that’s between Gen-X and Millennial. I’ve seen us called Xennials or the Oregon Trail Generation.

Diverse teams are more effective and deliver better results. A group of people with different backgrounds and experiences will come up with different solutions to a problem than a heterogeneous group. This is a well researched topic. It is why corporate America and the military are pushing for more DE&I.

The way we do it on my team is debate and discussion. Debate can be tricky in a professional environment. Some people go into thinking they need to dominate their opponent and make it personal. Personally, I would try to avoid hiring people like that in the first place, but sometimes you got to make do. The thing to remember is that you all are on the same side and have the same goal.

I heard this on the radio yesterday. Secretly ruthless is a good way to describe Google.

SHAPIRO: OK. So big picture on this anniversary, 25 years in, if you could describe Google's legacy in a sentence, what would that be?

PATEL: Secretly ruthless.

SHAPIRO: Oh, that's rough. Wow. Secretly ruthless - that's even less than a sentence. Give me a little bit more. Why do you say secretly ruthless?

PATEL: Google has convinced everyone that it is this incredibly sincere and earnest company - that it's just a bunch of goofballs making cool things. That is true. But I think if we just paid a little more attention to where Google's money comes from - and it is almost entirely advertising - I think we would be able to see the company and its influence a little bit more clearly. But the truth is, it is an utterly ruthless advertising company that is very, very, very successful at delivering results to its clients.

SHAPIRO: But Nilay, you didn't mention how cute the Google doodles are.

PATEL: Yeah, the - I understand. They're very cute.

https://www.npr.org/2023/09/04/1197548359/the-verges-nilay-patel-talks-googles-legacy-and-its-future-on-its-25th-anniversa

A lot of programmers need to work on their soft skills.

Birth rates are declining all over the world except in the poorest countries. As countries become richer their birth rates drop because people have more options in their life. I think a simpler explanation for the covid baby bump is that people didn't have anything else to do.

Suicide is tragic but according to the CDC there were 7,135 deaths from suicide for people under 25 in 2021. The number one cause of death for people under 25 are accidents with 20,139 deaths in 2021. It would be extremely unpopular, but raising the driving age to 21 would dramatically cut those accidental deaths.