> I don't think we take software reliability seriously enough, most of our focus is on speed of release, ever quicker cycles and it being OK to break things. This culture ruined these peoples lives. Things must change. This isn't a unique issue to Fujitsu it is something most of the software industry is doing, this story could be about just about any piece of software.

This won't change until executives go to jail.

A few years ago, we were fighting against tight deadline and skipping unit tests, QA, processes, etc. Someone brought up one of the recent major breach (Equifax?). Developers started to say that people will go to jail. Basically, devs were using this breach to imply that they will personal responsibility for releasing a product that might have security flaws. Our director laughed and said no one will go to jail and if our product ever got in trouble, they will personally take responsibility.

> The only frustrating thing is how clearly it's been highlighted that the rich and powerful countries get all the vaccines and we'll only get them here once everyone in the west has been vaccinated three times over.

Shouldn't countries that developed vaccines should take care of their citizens first?

That's one take, but not all endorse it.

"Which approach leads to the least dead people globally?" is another potential way of looking at things.

That's the greedy, shortsighted, tribal way of looking at things, sure.

Except for the first year in business, you can make that selection at the tax time of current taxes.

EDIT: I am wrong: https://www.optionstaxguy.com/mark-to-market

On $100K.

If programming as a hobby, then start with something visual with a quick feedback. You don't want to get stuck in months long projects. When I was kid, I bought a book on video games programming and just typed in code from it. I still remember when I was able to move a box on screen.

Another option might be Arduino. After years of writing CRUD, my love for programming reignited when I was able to make LED blink.

I will second Laravel. Also PHP developers are cheaper, if one day your project turns into a business, you can hire for a lot less money.

Based on this video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=9KtkIarbnMg it seems #2 is more likely scenario.

> All I hear about is "Everybody else can do X! We're the only ones that can't."

This is the main issue. If they don't participate in online communities where their friends are, they will have significant social disadvantage.

As a grown up, I had quit Facebook for about a year, and I noticed my social life was declining slowly. Someone would forget to invite me to some event. Someone might be shocked that I didn't know so and had a baby. And I am sure people started to label me as weirdo for not having Facebook.

Back to kids, yeah this is a social issue, not something that one can solve alone for just their family.

> And I am sure people started to label me as weirdo for not having Facebook.

They probably just don’t think of you. That’s the more likely scenario. People who engage with social media will stay in people’s minds more. If you’re not on there or not engaged, people will likely just forget about your existence. If I’m not connected to someone on social media or they don’t engage at all, there’s quite a bit of me forgetting they ever existed. After all, it’s not like we all see each other in physical spaces all the time. (Even pre-pandemic)

I quit facebook roughly seven years ago. Like you, I did notice a decline in my social life over the following year. However, things did slowly improve over time and now I have no complaints (the last year has been tough to keep up with people due to the pandemic, though).

The difference is I have to go out of my way to keep up with people over text, calls, or email. It's not that hard to do, though, since it's how I lived my life before facebook. Some people do think it's weird that they can't find me on facebook and I am probably missing out on one or two people who moved to "only facebook" communications, but honestly I don't really miss them.

You would sue guilty employees even if they quit and move to another company. I feel that would be much better for personal responsibility.

And the best part about this would be people cannot hide behind "I am just following orders."

Also, it would mean you usually would not recover anything since a corporation usually has deep pockets and your average employee is not even worth suing even if you could win.

True, but that may be a good thing. This may prevent people from suing for small infractions.

On other hand, let's say, if your average software developer knows that they can be sued into bankruptcy, then they will not release unfinished code and voice strong opposition to it. Thus shifting responsibility to middle managers. Now if middle managers know that they can be sued into bankruptcy, they will not override developers concerns and extend deadline and refuse to push unfinished product. Executives may try to override managers decisions but then responsibility shifts to them and they would not want to lose significant portion of their net worth. Board or managing-owners may try to override CEO, but then they will be responsible and they would not want to be personally sued and lose a portion of their personal wealth.

Yes this may not impact billionaire owners but that is a small number. Most companies will be more ethical and people will have a high degree of personal responsibility.

I think my issue with your hypothetical is that is assumed a company is already viable and in business. One of the primary advantages of a corporation or LLC is it’s limited liability. I.e., you can take a risk and if things don’t work out you can still personally recover. I suspect if we took the approach of your post, many, many fewer people would try their hand at starting a business because there are no limits to liability and much less capital to fund businesses if shareholders downside wasn’t capped.

How do you find freelance developer roles? I see those as extremely underpaid?