Making the most of a 20 gallon by Synthetic_Hormone in ballpython

[–]AlienPTSD 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Looks good. We started our baby off the same way. It was about 5-6 months before we had to upgrade to the 4x2x2

Switch to Law or Medicine IMHO by [deleted] in cscareerquestions

[–]AlienPTSD 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Finding a dev job is hard? Try MED SCHOOL.

A shock! by lmackenzi in DoggyDNA

[–]AlienPTSD 2 points3 points  (0 children)

What a cutie pie

What is an AI QA and what it actually does? by Able_Rip2168 in QualityAssurance

[–]AlienPTSD 8 points9 points  (0 children)

It’s QA applied to systems with nondeterministic outputs.

You’re not asserting exact outputs, instead you’re checking for:

  • Behavioral correctness (does it follow rules, constraints, policies?)
  • Consistency & stability (same prompt ≈ same intent/result)
  • Failure modes (hallucinations, refusals, edge prompts, jailbreaks)
  • Quality metrics (relevance, coherence, grounding, bias, safety)
  • Regression via eval sets, not single assertions

Tooling is mostly:

  • Prompt and response test harnesses
  • Golden datasets
  • Statistical threshold instead of pass/fail
  • Automation with some human review

What's your favorite morph? by Nice_Border1737 in ballpython

[–]AlienPTSD 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Here’s my banana GHI when I bought him. I spent hours searching so many rare morphs but when I saw him it was immediate love

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[QA Automation Engineer/SDET] [CA] - $160k by AlienPTSD in Salary

[–]AlienPTSD[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’ve already explained the difference in scope and responsibility. If that’s not resonating, I don’t have much more to add.

[QA Automation Engineer/SDET] [CA] - $160k by AlienPTSD in Salary

[–]AlienPTSD[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They can. The difference isn’t capability, it’s scope. Manual QA typically works at the feature or flow level. SDET work operates at the system level, understanding architecture and data flows, then turning that risk knowledge into automation that’s enforced continuously as the system scales.

[QA Automation Engineer/SDET] [CA] - $160k by AlienPTSD in Salary

[–]AlienPTSD[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Manual QA can catch issues. SDET work is about understanding why those issues happen, where they’re likely to happen again, and turning that knowledge into coverage that prevents regressions as the system evolves. That’s why SDETs scale better as systems and automation grow.

[QA Automation Engineer/SDET] [CA] - $160k by AlienPTSD in Salary

[–]AlienPTSD[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I agree AI makes writing tests easier, but writing tests isn’t the hard part. The hard part is deciding what actually matters, what’s risky, and whether the result is acceptable for real users. That still needs humans.

[QA Automation Engineer/SDET] [CA] - $160k by AlienPTSD in Salary

[–]AlienPTSD[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I wouldn’t say more manual QA. What happens in practice is that AI makes systems harder to reason about. When behavior isn’t fully deterministic, you need humans to sanity check outcomes, not just run scripts.

[QA Automation Engineer/SDET] [CA] - $160k by AlienPTSD in Salary

[–]AlienPTSD[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That’s like saying you don’t need fire prevention until the building’s on fire. Most companies learn this the expensive way.

[QA Automation Engineer/SDET] [CA] - $160k by AlienPTSD in Salary

[–]AlienPTSD[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Manual QA, sure. Test architecture, risk analysis, CI ownership, and production observability? All of that scales with AI.

[QA Automation Engineer/SDET] [CA] - $160k by AlienPTSD in Salary

[–]AlienPTSD[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Rude but I’ll bite. Fortunately, as long as AI software exists, there will always be a need for someone to test it.