The funny thing about coding is that every time we automate something away, we just go on to take on ever more ambitious projects. We've been automating away ou

The funny thing about coding is that every time we automate something away, we just go on to take on ever more ambitious projects. We've been automating away our own jobs for decades, and... the jobs haven't gone anywhere. If anything, there is more demand now than ever. Short of strong AI, I don't see this changing. This is actually one of my biggest reasons why I don't think we'll ever develop a true engineering discipline of software. In other engineering disciplines, there's a notion of a routine set of tasks that require skill and displine to perform. In software, whenever we discover routine anything, we automate it away. Therefore there is a relentless force moving against the routinization of our work, that is precisely what has made it so lucrative to be in software. Who knows, maybe some day that trend will end. But at least for a good while, I suspect the more likely possibility is that we'll keep expanding the scope of our work as the tools keep taking on more of the work.