4 ms·
Ask HN: Is Programming Dead?
On X people claim 100s of thousands of tech layoffs, ghost jobs, a dead industry. I don't see this anywhere else. Hackernews seems alive, wellfound seems alive (though impossible to get an interview) recruiters seem alive, though seemingly have no jobs. What is going on? What is reality? I am asking this on X and dev.to as well. Are we being silently replaced?
Edit:
I see posts like this often on X:
https://x.com/Scobleizer/status/1836662119770849535
- KingOfCoders 2y agoNot yet.
- w4ffl35 2y agoThanks for responding, but this isn't super helpful - my experience has been that it is next to impossible to get a job interview as of the last year or so. This is anecdotal, but it matches up with what I'm seeing people on social media say.
- cranberryturkey 2y agoIt’s been going on since 2022 here in California
- w4ffl35 2y agoAre jobs being consolidated? Businesses starting but just don't need employees? AI can't do the job yet - is it people with little to no programming skills trying to ChatGPT their way through it? The phenomenon seems to extend beyond California. I see many job listings constantly updated on Wellfound and elsewhere. Are these actually ghost jobs?
- cranberryturkey 2y agoNo for tech anyway i think it just all the VC money dried up after they raised interest rates. No free money anymore so now that they are starting to lower interest rates, I expect it to improve in about a year.
- stray 2y agoI think you're just seeing the results of years of over-hiring, followed by a slight downturn. When money is cheap, companies over-hire. And when money is expensive, companies fire/layoff/whatever. In this variation of musical chairs, you need to be seated before the music stops.
- w4ffl35 2y agoPossibly but I've been at it for 20 years - this is the first time I've experienced a drought like this.
- stray 2y ago34 years for me -- and this looks a lot like 2000 to me.
- JohnFen 2y agoEven longer for me. This pales in comparison to the dot com bubble. The reality is that our industry has gone through these sorts of events a few times, and such events will happen again in the future.
- w4ffl35 2y agoMany people saying programming won't exist as a profession within a year or two which is what makes me wonder if I should pivot.
- JohnFen 2y agoAnyone saying that programming as a profession won't exist after a year or two are simply wrong. Period. There's literally no reason to think that would be true, and tons of reasons to think it isn't. Especially on such a short time scale. The most dramatic possible outcome in the next couple of years (and one I think is probable) is that programming will change, as it always does. Not that it will stop being a thing.
- belter 2y agoThis is what is happening...How good are you at taming cows? Canada: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/IHLIDXCATPSOFTDEVE https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/IHLIDXCATPSOFTDEVE Australia: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/IHLIDXAUTPSOFTDEVE https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/IHLIDXAUTPSOFTDEVE Germany: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/IHLIDXDE https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/IHLIDXDE UK: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/IHLIDXGB https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/IHLIDXGB USA: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/IHLIDXUSTPSOFTDEVE https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/IHLIDXUSTPSOFTDEVE Tech Hiring... https://fredblog.stlouisfed.org/2023/03/was-there-a-tech-hiring-bubble/?utm_source=series_page&utm_medium=related_content&utm_term=related_resources&utm_campaign=fredblog https://fredblog.stlouisfed.org/2023/03/was-there-a-tech-hir...
- w4ffl35 2y agoInteresting thanks
- lofaszvanitt 2y agoWell, everyone open sourced their shit, and put it on github, because it was trendy. In 10 years, programmers will become AI assistants at best, lol.
- w4ffl35 2y agoI think it's about 1 year away not 10
- meiraleal 2y agoFor some, Yes. If there is a surpresa of lets say 50%, lots of people will need to change market
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- JohnFen 2y ago> On X people claim Don't listen to random people on twitter. It is a poor reflection of reality.
- w4ffl35 2y agoIt's rather well known tech accounts.
- JohnFen 2y agoThat doesn't change my opinion at all.
- w4ffl35 2y agoYou told me not to listen to random people on the internet, I don't. Includes you lol.
- JohnFen 2y agoAside from the fact that I'm not on twitter -- yes indeed, I am a random person on the internet and you shouldn't take anything I say with any greater weight than any other random person. That said, I'd argue that even if the person tweeting is famous, they still count as "random people on the internet" unless you are so familiar with them that you know what biases they have.