4 ms·

Every generation faces this sort of issue which is learning skills for the current technology which then get displaced in 20-30 years. I think there's always a

by asim 4y ago

Every generation faces this sort of issue which is learning skills for the current technology which then get displaced in 20-30 years. I think there's always a worry we're going to lose some knowledge in the process but equally the productivity gain seems to be 10x and it leads to dealing with higher level problems. Very few people are kernel hacking now as a percentage of the overall engineering community. I guess the question is. What do we build with this form of engineering. It's so very early. We're using it as a way to augment current systems but I think we'll build for entirely new things soon.

lionkor 4y ago
Its just that usually the new tools and technologies that have this effect are accurate, deterministic, or at least try to be or pretend to be. So, its quite literally an issue of lost knowledge. Is like replacing wikipedia with something that answers faster, but without sources. Its cool in the short term, and people are more productive at learning things, but you also go back to the hear-say time before books were invented.
manicennui 4y ago
We have been told that computers will do our (software engineers) jobs for decades now. It has never come to fruition, and this is no different. What we are seeing is that the number of software engineers has increased dramatically and the average skill level has plummeted. It is not normal for a competent software engineer to need to reference Stack Overflow a dozen times per day every single day. The other thing that this is bringing to the forefront is just how atrocious the libraries are in certain ecosystems (e.g. JS/TS). If a tool that can write incorrect functions/methods makes you substantially more productive, you were never very valuable in the first place, and "AI" likely isn't the only thing threatening your job security.

4 ms·

Every generation faces this sort of issue which is learning skills for the current technology which then get displaced in 20-30 years. I think there's always a

by asim 4y ago

lionkor 4y ago
Its just that usually the new tools and technologies that have this effect are accurate, deterministic, or at least try to be or pretend to be. So, its quite literally an issue of lost knowledge. Is like replacing wikipedia with something that answers faster, but without sources. Its cool in the short term, and people are more productive at learning things, but you also go back to the hear-say time before books were invented.
manicennui 4y ago
We have been told that computers will do our (software engineers) jobs for decades now. It has never come to fruition, and this is no different. What we are seeing is that the number of software engineers has increased dramatically and the average skill level has plummeted. It is not normal for a competent software engineer to need to reference Stack Overflow a dozen times per day every single day. The other thing that this is bringing to the forefront is just how atrocious the libraries are in certain ecosystems (e.g. JS/TS). If a tool that can write incorrect functions/methods makes you substantially more productive, you were never very valuable in the first place, and "AI" likely isn't the only thing threatening your job security.