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Unlike in the 80s - most programmers no longer need to know assembler/machine code to do their jobs. The skill floor has been lowered - so that programmers like

by zirgs 4y ago

Unlike in the 80s - most programmers no longer need to know assembler/machine code to do their jobs. The skill floor has been lowered - so that programmers like me can get a job.

mjr00 4y ago
Yeah, that's a comparison I've been thinking about. C lowered the skill floor, and then Java/Python lowered it even more dramatically, plus the explosion of open source tooling, cloud infrastructure, and general hardware improvements. The average modern junior data scientist could build a software application in a day that would have taken a team of senior C developers months or years to build in 1990. Yet we have not seen a reduction in the number developers.
- monknomo 4y ago
  I feel like the dev job may change, but as long as people have difficultly describing their requirements so that a programmer can understand, they'll have difficulty describing their requirements so that an AI can understand. It's one thing to ask for a pong game, it's another to ask for a program that "does a kyc process" or something similarly complex
  - tjr 4y ago
    Right, I believe so too. I work in aerospace software, and, for as remarkable as the GPT code generation examples have been so far, I think that even if it could write aerospace software, it would be because humans have spelled out the requirements so precisely that we really aren't looking at any substantial reduction in (human) workforce. You're unlikely to be able to ask an AI tool for "flight management software" and get what you want. This stuff is extremely complex, with lots of moving parts and interactions with other components and with government regulations. You may be able to successfully ask for some specific function, but again, in order to understand that level of detail to even know what to ask for, you have to be pretty involved. It can't just be some non-engineer asking for things they don't understand. Never mind the challenge of certifying the resulting software for use in commercial airspace... And while I think AI tools may be a help (not unlike Stack Overflow), I think it would be a really big mistake to start replacing novice junior engineers with AI tools, even if we could do so, because we need senior engineers who really understand this stuff, and most of the training for aerospace work is on the job.
tablespoon 4y ago
> Unlike in the 80s - most programmers no longer need to know assembler/machine code to do their jobs. The skill floor has been lowered - so that programmers like me can get a job. Assembly isn't that hard. You'd have still gotten a job, but your employer just wouldn't have gotten as much productivity out of you (so they'd either have had to hire more programmers or write less software).
- dodslaser 4y ago
  The same goes for creating art without AI.

by zirgs 4y ago

Unlike in the 80s - most programmers no longer need to know assembler/machine code to do their jobs. The skill floor has been lowered - so that programmers like me can get a job.

mjr00 4y ago

Yeah, that's a comparison I've been thinking about. C lowered the skill floor, and then Java/Python lowered it even more dramatically, plus the explosion of open source tooling, cloud infrastructure, and general hardware improvements. The average modern junior data scientist could build a software application in a day that would have taken a team of senior C developers months or years to build in 1990. Yet we have not seen a reduction in the number developers.

monknomo 4y ago
I feel like the dev job may change, but as long as people have difficultly describing their requirements so that a programmer can understand, they'll have difficulty describing their requirements so that an AI can understand. It's one thing to ask for a pong game, it's another to ask for a program that "does a kyc process" or something similarly complex
- tjr 4y ago
  Right, I believe so too. I work in aerospace software, and, for as remarkable as the GPT code generation examples have been so far, I think that even if it could write aerospace software, it would be because humans have spelled out the requirements so precisely that we really aren't looking at any substantial reduction in (human) workforce. You're unlikely to be able to ask an AI tool for "flight management software" and get what you want. This stuff is extremely complex, with lots of moving parts and interactions with other components and with government regulations. You may be able to successfully ask for some specific function, but again, in order to understand that level of detail to even know what to ask for, you have to be pretty involved. It can't just be some non-engineer asking for things they don't understand. Never mind the challenge of certifying the resulting software for use in commercial airspace... And while I think AI tools may be a help (not unlike Stack Overflow), I think it would be a really big mistake to start replacing novice junior engineers with AI tools, even if we could do so, because we need senior engineers who really understand this stuff, and most of the training for aerospace work is on the job.

tablespoon 4y ago

> Unlike in the 80s - most programmers no longer need to know assembler/machine code to do their jobs. The skill floor has been lowered - so that programmers like me can get a job. Assembly isn't that hard. You'd have still gotten a job, but your employer just wouldn't have gotten as much productivity out of you (so they'd either have had to hire more programmers or write less software).

dodslaser 4y ago
The same goes for creating art without AI.