Ask HN: Former master-tech building AI systems – how to break into software?

So to keep a very long story short, I was 28, was exactly a year ago from april i was awarded top 2000 technicaians in the Nation from Stellantis of North America. I was(and still am) dealing with life long knee pain and hip pain from just wear and tear of automotive repair. Due to this i knew automotive was over for me. Then I discovered claude.ai and one question led to another text thing you kmow im building a dual rtx msi b550 tomohawk max wifi 64gb ram, amd am4 5900xt cpu. 3tb ssd nvme ssd. Within 2 months of discovering the potential of CS. That said. I ended up creatinf a ton of projects to teach myself. Mind you im doing all this while the world around me is crashing and burning. I built printmakerai.com. I know ai is amazing at coding, and is very useful, but im the kind of guy who firmly believes "if you want it done right you must do it yourself." The reason im posting this is im seeking advice on what I should do. I cant land a career in cs without a formal degree. Im coming from one of the most technically advanced trades there are. We aren't "mechanics" anymore were technicians and for good reason. I can directly translate canbus, sensor fusion,.redundant systems, trace wiring diagrams,

Seperate circuits and modules and accurately Diagnose a module, circuit or more. Heck I was able to translate oil wicking to solder wicking. Like how 2018+ wranglers throw excessive dash lights and can stall? Everyone assumes abs module because the abs is throwing the dtc and there was a year plagued with bad abs modules. But its really a starconnector behind the glove box that has solder wicking down the pcb. And even being this smart is clearly not enough to land me a job in any real cs world. Thanks to claude.ai I found what makes brain light up like a Christmas tree but genuinely need help navigating this confusing field. That said ill be treaching myzelf python today because we'll I cant code myself lmao. And I know thats blocker number 1.

4 points | by nicku711 2 days ago

3 comments

  • p1esk 13 hours ago
    I’d look at software projects in automotive industry. Someone has to write software modern cars run, you can become that someone with enough focus and determination.
  • kingkongjaffa 1 day ago
    I think you're focusing on all the wrong things and come across a bit naive IMHO.

    - Your PC specs don't mean anything to anyone.

    - 'top 2000 technicaians in the Nation from Stellantis of North America.' - This doesn't mean anything to anyone hiring for a coding position.

    - 'Everyone assumes abs module because...' - This is a cute curiosity that doesn't mean anything to anyone.

    1. does printmakerai.com actually work? It seems like a vibecoded landing page.

    2. has it made any money? Your pricing tiers don't make any sense to me.

    3. > even being this smart ... - start from a more humble position.

    > im seeking advice on what I should do.

    - You should make a github profile and write code and put it there.

    - Take CS50x https://cs50.harvard.edu/x/

    - Take a data structures and algorithms course

    - Do some LeetCode

    - Apply to jobs on hackernews 'who's hiring' thread, and other places.

    [-]
    • codingdave 1 day ago
      I agree with the sentiment, but would not be so harsh on the details. Succeeding in a different technical industry does offer some validation that they can succeed in this industry. Dismissing their achievements as irrelevant, even if true, is an unfair response to someone who sounds sincere in their desire to learn. It is OK to be a little simplistic and off-track at this point in their journey. Everyone starts at the beginning.

      I would recommend completely different next steps. I think they are on the right track - using the tools available to them to get projects out and learn how to create. Because that is the key difference between where they are coming from and where they want to go: They are not maintaining a pre-existing system anymore, they are building new systems from scratch, so they don't need to focus on the "mechanics" of CS, they need to focus on the perspective change of owning the design of every piece of the system from the ground up.

      My recommendation would be to work on finding parallels between their old skills and software dev. They clearly can understand a complex system, so rather than focusing on the line-by-line (which AI can do for them), they need to focus on the system itself. I'd recommend they look at existing complex projects, get local instances running on their machine, and break them down layer-by-layer to understand the pieces - DB, back-end, front-end, caching, the underlying servers, containers, and hardware, and then the front0line distributions of it all via the web with TCP/IP, DNS, CDNs, etc.

      OP has an opportunity to step into this industry and pick up that overall systemic understanding that many of today's coders never even bother to learn. They can then add in actual coding skills and product skills, learn how to create with AI, and probably do quite well.

  • mirmor23 1 day ago
    [dead]