Comment by bitwize

Remember when programmers viewed the guy who wrote Word documents and drew box-and-arrow diagrams all day with disdain because he was abstracted far away from the code base and didn't know how the real work got done?

Before he died, Tim Bryce had been trying to convey, since decades ago, that the document-and-diagram person is the real smart one in the room, the one contributing actual value. The programmers are just translators, turning those specifications into something a machine can execute. What's more, because they arrogate to themselves more value to the organization than they can actually justify, and because they resist discipline and organization, they're usually a liability to the company, and to society at large. Why does the TV and every device attached to it need a separate remote? Why don't they all just adopt a universal standard? It's programmers' fault. (No, really, that is a thing he said: https://patch.com/florida/palmharbor/amp/28237018/the-proble...)

Bryce was absolutely right. Now, with AI, there's barely any need for programmers anymore—just people who can describe the information systems the business needs. He'd be laughing his ass off had he lived to today, as the people who to whom every business had been beholden just watched their value drop to zero.

There's just no value anymore in being an obsessive technician anymore. There's no value in being a nerd. And here's a secret: the people you thought used to value you, secretly resented you and wanted you gone. Tim Bryce just said the quiet part out loud.

AI has freed you to focus on what's really important: being convincing in business meetings and charming at cocktail parties. Y'all need to go grind on your social skills, because AI won't be coming for those for a while yet.