Thread by @GergelyOrosz

The biggest challenge the software engineering industry has today is not related to engineering.

It's related to teaching.

How can we train (very) junior engineers to get to a level where they are autonomous enough, in a reasonable timeframe? Can we do this in a remote setting?

All the while in the industry, the most experienced engineers are busy building the next framework that does an incrementally better job than before and adds another layer of complexity.

What if these people - naturally suited to teach - would be incentivized in doing so?

You don't need to look further than web development to see the contradiction.

Take React.

The API is ever-changing. Documentation is lacking. Onboarding is non-existent. Junior engineers are overwhelmed trying to learn the ever-changing React as their first frontend framework.

To be clear: I'm not blaming teams building stuff and moving things forward.

The blame is on companies failing to recognize they need to take some ownership of teaching and training their jr engineers. Choose frameworks not just for coolness, but onboarding experience.

"Will this problem ever be solved?"

Not across the industry. But already, some companies are spending a lot more time on training people. Creating environments where this training happens on the job with guidance and limiting impact (hello, microservices and micro frontends!)

Training doesn't just have to be the traditional setting. BUT it does need more experienced engineers spending time with less experienced folks.

Also, remember how Uber was made fun of 1,000s of microservices? That setup conveniently helped growing thousands of junior engineers.

One of the biggest stepbacks in the industry related to this from 10-20 years ago is how pairing and pair programming is no longer "cool".

It was one of the best ways more experienced engineers taught. Few things beat two people solving one problem, even today, learning-wise.

Finally, a quote from a junior web engineer:

"Feels like 20 years ago you needed to know HTML, CSS and a bit of JS to get started.

Today I need to know React (Hooks, Routes), Next, CSS processors, webpack, npm/yarn, JS/ES6, git, Typescript, testing, SEO, performance..."

And to close with an inconvenient truth:

For senior engineers, *not* teaching (too much) is sensible for keeping their skills in more demand, and their salaries higher.

There's a severe shortage of senior engineers. Once there will not be, compensation might not be this high.