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I understand that someone has to be paid to generate AI, but one of the promises of programming of the last couple of years was that if you could afford a lapto

I understand that someone has to be paid to generate AI, but one of the promises of programming of the last couple of years was that if you could afford a laptop and were smart enough you could contribute to software development by contributing to github and so forth. In practice I don't know how much of that translates into practice (see AWS/cloud/hosting and so forth), but I don't like this future where the only people who are able to program the machines are able to pay for an IDE that has a monthly or per usage cost structure. The only people who get rich during a gold rush are the people that are selling the shovels. I think that people are tired of rewarding shovel sellers.

vincent-manis 4y ago
Don't forget the, er, “recreation workers”.
jcq3 4y ago
Don't get your point. It's up to you to spend money to boost your productivity, nobody will force developers to use AI powered tools.
- philipphutterer 4y ago
  Perhaps when the standard of software development shifts towards using AI for everything?
- blagie 4y ago
  Let me explain the point: * There are hundreds of millions of people living for under $2/day. Coding was a pathway out of poverty. * There are billions of people with family incomes under $30/day. For those families, kids learning to code was a pathway to wealth. If tools to be productive cost money, it will go the same way as other domains of engineering, where you can't be productive without a significant investment. EDA tools to design electronics run $5k-$100k, and making an IC might have NREs of $100k. That places it squarely out-of-line as a career option for many.
  - 6gvONxR4sf7o 4y ago
    It’s the shovels vs spoons parable all over again.
    - blagie 4y ago
      It's a different parable. Everyone can afford a shovel. At one point in time, computers were limited to very wealthy folks, like Bill Gates. He learned to program by going to an exclusive private high school which had a computer, and later, in Harvard. He had a unique competitive advantage which allowed him to start Microsoft. A better parable is GNU/Linux/BSD/etc. versus Unix/VAX/etc. Unix cost thousands of dollars. The free alternatives were free. This allowed a whole generation of kids to learn, who didn't have Gates' resources. I wasn't in a private high school, and without Debian, I wouldn't have the life I have.

vincent-manis 4y ago

Don't forget the, er, “recreation workers”.

jcq3 4y ago

Don't get your point. It's up to you to spend money to boost your productivity, nobody will force developers to use AI powered tools.

philipphutterer 4y ago
Perhaps when the standard of software development shifts towards using AI for everything?
blagie 4y ago
Let me explain the point: * There are hundreds of millions of people living for under $2/day. Coding was a pathway out of poverty. * There are billions of people with family incomes under $30/day. For those families, kids learning to code was a pathway to wealth. If tools to be productive cost money, it will go the same way as other domains of engineering, where you can't be productive without a significant investment. EDA tools to design electronics run $5k-$100k, and making an IC might have NREs of $100k. That places it squarely out-of-line as a career option for many.
- 6gvONxR4sf7o 4y ago
  It’s the shovels vs spoons parable all over again.
  - blagie 4y ago
    It's a different parable. Everyone can afford a shovel. At one point in time, computers were limited to very wealthy folks, like Bill Gates. He learned to program by going to an exclusive private high school which had a computer, and later, in Harvard. He had a unique competitive advantage which allowed him to start Microsoft. A better parable is GNU/Linux/BSD/etc. versus Unix/VAX/etc. Unix cost thousands of dollars. The free alternatives were free. This allowed a whole generation of kids to learn, who didn't have Gates' resources. I wasn't in a private high school, and without Debian, I wouldn't have the life I have.