Comment by DWBH
6 months ago
Software engineer from the 1970s here - it's run its course. It's like the music industry; it was what it was until it no longer was anymore. AI replaces processes, which replaces people. Qualified and educated software engineers coming out of Asia are cheap and plentiful, and the majors are stocking up on them and dumping the end of career Caucasians. Don't waste your time; unless you have a great idea then code that bitch and see if anyone will buy it. Develop people skills, get an MBA, learn to sell. AI can't do that (yet). And, yes, it's all about 'realizing the value' which means revenue generation and cost savings. Loyalty died decades ago.
I actually don't think AI is nearly as much an issue as office admins taking over and making professional collaboration somewhere between intractable and impossible.
Have better tools made software engineers irrelevant before? Lol no. They've meant more software which meant people needed more software engineers. AI is exactly the same.
It's like saying Ford's assembly line killed the automobile industry.
> Have better tools made software engineers irrelevant before? Lol no.
Yes that is true. But now we have a situation where in 5 years, the pool of available software engineers might grow from, I don't know, 10million people to 200million. Just like every person became a photographer with smartphones. This makes being a software engineer not a great career anymore. Unless you are a great programmer, just like the great photographers. But that will be a way smaller pool than the current highly paid software engineers.
Yeah I don't know, you already have to be really good (like able to do distributed systems architecture) just get a job. No one is paying script kiddies.
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