from Hacker News

Maybe coders should learn to love analog? (2024)

by stmw on 3/8/25, 10:33 PM with 56 comments

• by zabzonk on 3/8/25, 11:39 PM

  Well, if you can do it, do it. But in my experience, using an analog computer is nothing at all like digital. I used to have to maintain one when I worked at the University of London, back in the very early 80s (basically making sure plug-board wires hadn't gone bad). Programming one (if you can call it that) required a bit of mathematical nous (which I didn't have enough of, though I was pretty sharp at digital), and the academic I worked with (who did) used to spend a lot of time saying "f*ck" as he tried to set up things like predator-prey simulation demos for the students.

• by petermcneeley on 3/8/25, 11:29 PM

  I respect those that have come before and I know there still exists some places where analog is not only the superior option but the only option however almost everything you want to do is ADC then back DAC.

• by 01100011 on 3/8/25, 11:47 PM

  Lol, I wish. I'm a SWE because it pays much more than using my EE degree.

• by delfinom on 3/8/25, 11:56 PM

  As someone in the EE field. The jobs exist but are not plentiful. The physical engineering fields in the US have very largely shrunk due to offshoring, centralization into major OEMs and general efficiencies in doing work. "Analog" is a very cost sensitive and optimized arena.

• by Bjartr on 3/8/25, 11:36 PM

  Tangentially related:

  You can play around with analog programming of a sort with modular synthesizers. It's a pretty neat way to dip your toe into analog signal processing.

• by mikewarot on 3/9/25, 6:18 AM

  If you want to get your feet wet with analog electronics, I'd suggest getting an Arduino starter kit, with a breadboard, some components, and a cheap Multimeter and Oscilloscope, and just start playing with things. You can fairly quickly build up an intuition of things if you've got something you can get your hands on.

  Once you get the hang of the basics at Audio and low RF frequencies, you can then set up GNU Radio, which works with your audio I/O of your computer, etc.. maybe add a $30 RTLsdr dongle, and the next thing you know, you've got a bit of RF under your belt.

• by a3w on 3/8/25, 11:23 PM

  What is analog? Voltages and circuits and currents, but not digital tubes and transistors?

  Most coders in my vicinity are interested in woodworking, is that analog? I think not.

• by analog31 on 3/8/25, 11:37 PM

  >>> Someone with programming experience could contribute in many of these areas, and still work exclusively at their keyboards and not even getting their hands dirty, if that’s their concern.

  I could probably be described as living in the "analog" domain, as a physicist working for a company that makes measurement equipment. Naturally, this could be an ingrained bias, but I've formed the impression that something about getting your hands dirty confers the intuition needed to work productively in this domain. You need to experience being proven wrong by mother nature, over and over again.

  Also, if you're sitting at your screen all day, nobody's going to pull you into the loop. It's quicker to just do that stuff ourselves, than to explain it to someone.

  So I agree with everything else in the article, because I love analog and love coding. But come on, join us in the lab.

• by throw122323 on 3/8/25, 11:53 PM

  I've got a relative who works at Analog Devices. They're on their third straight month of crunch time, working in 12 hour shifts through the weekends.

  Why? Because the dipshits in leadership decided to project the revenue growth during the chip shortage as a straight line for the next 10 years.

  Looks like those same dipshits decided the best course of action is to get their soft skulled alumni to write some blog posts to try to herd more cattle into the grinder.

• by gedy on 3/8/25, 11:55 PM

  Are there decent paying jobs now? I was an EE then CompE major and, while I enjoyed it and think my engineering degrees were solid, all the jobs and better pay were in software. I'm glad I liked to program as a hobby, otherwise my career would have been a lot more challenging.

• by tracerbulletx on 3/9/25, 1:02 AM

  These jobs are far fewer, pay less, and are no more resilient to AI progress making this useless advice.

• by inetknght on 3/9/25, 3:05 AM

  Programming in analog won't pay as well at all compared to programming in digital.

  So telling people to move over to analog will depress that job market even more than it already is.

• by beebaween on 3/9/25, 1:07 AM

  I love all things analog other than my macbook.

  Smart things drive me completely insane and I find peace with things that just work without a wifi connection or firmware of any kind.

• by analogdude on 3/9/25, 1:12 AM

  It’ll never happen. Analog circuit design takes a level of intelligence that, frankly, most programmers are nowhere near. Digital is black and white by the book and you can trial by error your way to a solution. Analog is an art that actual requires deep knowledge of conflicting parameters. Technically EVERYTHING is analog—there is no such thing as digital—-but coders just don’t have the genetics for analog.

• by 6stringmerc on 3/8/25, 11:47 PM

  Dallas County Community College has a career education program (eg like a trade school) in a field called “mechatronics.”

  When the presenter explained, it turns out to be programming and managing the systems that do warehouse / product movement in facilities owned by scrappy little companies like Wal-Mart and Amazon…you know, because humans need bathroom breaks and pesky things like safety considerations. Apparently graduates walk into the field regularly getting $70-80,000 a year jobs, which to me sounds really low. Then again, the program is like 18 weeks and a surrogate for higher education in a field where demand exists.

  So in a way the grandpa who wrote this article is right, but little does he know it’s eliminating low skill jobs that his meth addled nephew might be actually qualified to do!