more young people interested in tech should cross train on both hardware and software and those who do write software should learn more about embedded systems (which are both custom hw and software).
There is a real problem with loss of knowledge and a focus on “time to market” over reslience/security; and lack of testing. To be fair even the old battleaxe of maths teacher we had for Computer Studies (in my day you were taught proper coding) drummed into us the importance of testing (me and my friend even thoroughly and tested the RAT on our adjacent workstations (there were 4 of us who always sat in a particuar bit of the computer lab where it was difficult to be observed) before we pwned her with it…
On some of the kit I work on; if I fuck up someone could end up on the wrong side of 230V or even 400V strong voltage; or electromagnetic radiation (on top of other issues such as risk of falls from height, exposure asbest and other harsh chemicals) and if it isn’t myself who ends up suffering these nasties I would still be likely to be nicked, put before Court and even if I stayed out of jail I’d have on my conscience having also put vulnerable people at risk and fucked up the livelihoods of 250 or more workers; some who have travelled 1000s of kilometers to work for us.
When you are dealing with stuff like that you do learn a sense of ethics and responsibility…
