Ꮢ๐ϲoᴄo Ⅿoԁｅm Ᏼaｓіliｓk

Job titles of the near future:

* Software gardener (the intersection of devops & maintenance)

* Software archaeologist (maintenance of old but important systems)

* Software anthropologist (maintenance of old but important systems whose behavior is confusing)

* Software documentary editor (a software anthropologist that annotates old broken software & its documentation for software historians)

* Software historian (studies old versions of software to make it understandable to modern users)

May 12, 2017 at 6:14pmWeb
Show threadᏒ๐ϲoᴄo Ⅿoԁｅm ᏴaｓіliｓkMay 12, 2017

* Software etymologist (traces the genealogy of terms, processes, ideas, and systems)

* Software entomologist (classifies bugs and studies their behavior; offshoot of security research)

* Software ecologist (studies the interactions of vast numbers of huge, ancient systems)

* Software zoning manager (controls what software is allowed to exist based on concerns about stability raised by software ecologists & software historians)

Show threadᏒ๐ϲoᴄo Ⅿoԁｅm ᏴaｓіliｓkMay 12, 2017

* Software reenactor (usually a hobbyist; uses emulation to reenact important historical events like the flash crash of 1986, the Morris worm, and the Fuzzy Bear APT, sometimes for museums, schools, or local festivals)

* Software mythographer (studies the myths and folklore surrounding pieces of software, particularly its cultural impact; internet memes are primary sources)

* Software plumber (a software gardener who fixes things software ecologists notice are broken)

Show threadᏒ๐ϲoᴄo Ⅿoԁｅm ᏴaｓіliｓkMay 12, 2017

* Software exterminator (a software gardener who identifies and removes systems that pose a risk to the ecosystem or to services of historical interest)

* Historic Software Registrar (keeps a list of historically interesting or important pieces of software & services, and preserves them; an archivist, but one who keeps old code running as well)

* Software cartographer (works with software ecologists to understand & document data flows)

Show threadCharlotte 猫 Awoo FideMay 12, 2017
@enkiv2 these are jobs i would like
Show threadᏒ๐ϲoᴄo Ⅿoԁｅm ᏴaｓіliｓkMay 12, 2017

@confusedcharlot I think you can do them now -- it's just that you wouldn't get that job title.

Like, 90% of what I do at work is stuff in this toot, and yet I have the title "software engineer", which is BS.

In six years never have I been asked to provide a KT chart for a shell script.

Show threadHob, Slayer of BugsMay 12, 2017
@enkiv2 Today they just call us consultants.
Show threadᏒ๐ϲoᴄo Ⅿoԁｅm ᏴaｓіliｓkMay 12, 2017
@daHob
Better term than "software engineer". You're not an engineer if you aren't doing KT analysis.
Show threadHob, Slayer of BugsMay 12, 2017
@enkiv2 well, I just got out of an hour long meeting with the performance team. They were demoing a new metrics dashboard...
Show threadᏒ๐ϲoᴄo Ⅿoԁｅm ᏴaｓіliｓkMay 12, 2017
@daHob I think that makes their analytics suite an engineer.
Show threadHob, Slayer of BugsMay 12, 2017
@enkiv2 so if we design an app that does KT analysis we are making engineers?
Show threadᏒ๐ϲoᴄo Ⅿoԁｅm ᏴaｓіliｓkMay 12, 2017

@daHob
I'm sure it takes less time and money than manufacturing them the old-fashioned way.

(Fertilizing an egg, feeding it for 18 years, pushing it through six years of a bachelor's degree, giving it an internship at a military contractor, and enrolling it in a professional organization.)

Show threadHob, Slayer of BugsMay 12, 2017
@enkiv2 plus a subscription to Spectrum
Show threadᏒ๐ϲoᴄo Ⅿoԁｅm ᏴaｓіliｓkMay 12, 2017
@daHob
Don't get me started on the IEEE
Show threadHob, Slayer of BugsMay 12, 2017
@enkiv2 /laughs/
Show threadNow @[email protected]May 13, 2017
@enkiv2 I've been claiming at work that asking parties needed an archeologist not an architect for quite some time.
Show threadAlan ZimmermanSep 20, 2017
@enkiv2 we already talk about gardening in our dev process. kind of pro actively managing technical debt. pulling weeds, fixing fences.
Show threadᏒ๐ϲoᴄo Ⅿoԁｅm ᏴaｓіliｓkSep 20, 2017
@alanz
I think what we really need is more software mythographers/folklorists. The lore is incredibly important -- it affects decisions way more than reality does -- and as far as I'm aware only two or three people seriously attempted to document it (ESR and the author of The Devouring Fungus, and maybe the authors of Fire in the Valley but it's unclear that they know they're documenting folklore).
Show threadᏒ๐ϲoᴄo Ⅿoԁｅm ᏴaｓіliｓkSep 20, 2017
@alanz
Plus, now image macro culture (i.e., faxlore via imageboard) is having huge impacts beyond the tech industry -- and somehow the original faxlore is still barely studied.