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I'm future proofing my job by ensuring I remain someone whose brain is tuned to solving complex problems, and to do that most effectively I find ways to keep be

I'm future proofing my job by ensuring I remain someone whose brain is tuned to solving complex problems, and to do that most effectively I find ways to keep being engaged in both the fundamentals of programming (as already mentioned) and the higher-level aspects: Teaching others (which in turn teaches me new things) and being in leadership roles where I can make real architectural choices in terms of what hardware to run our software on. I'm far more worried about mental degradation due to any number of circumstances -- unlucky genetics, infections, what have you. But "future proofing" myself against some of that has the same answer: Remain curious, remain mentally ambidextrous, and don't let other people (or objects) think for me. My brain is my greatest asset both for my job and my private life. So I do what I can to keep it in good shape, which incidentally also means replacing me with a parrot is unlikely to be a good decision.

paulcole 2y ago
Nobody who's been replaced by a parrot thought they were going to get replaced by a parrot. Where's your espoused intellectual curiosity and mental ambidextrousness when it comes to LLMs? It seems like your mind is pretty firmly made up that they're of no worry to you.
- simianparrot 2y ago
  In another comment I briefly mention one use case I have been implementing with LLM's: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42434886 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42434886 I'm being vague with the details because this is one of the features in our product that's a big advantage over competitors. To get to that point I experimented with and prototyped a lot using LLM's; I did a deep dive into how they work from the ground up. I understand the tech and its strengths. But likewise the weaknesses -- or perhaps more apt, the use cases which are more "magic show" than actually useful. I never dismissed LLM's as useless, but I am as confident as I can possibly be that LLM's on their own cannot and will not put programmers out of jobs. They're a great tool, but they're not what many people seem to be fooled into believing that they are; they are not "intelligent" nor "agents". Maybe it'll be a bit difficult for juniors to get entry level jobs for a short while due to a misunderstanding of the tech and all the hype, but that'll equalize pretty quickly once reality sets in.

paulcole 2y ago

Nobody who's been replaced by a parrot thought they were going to get replaced by a parrot. Where's your espoused intellectual curiosity and mental ambidextrousness when it comes to LLMs? It seems like your mind is pretty firmly made up that they're of no worry to you.

simianparrot 2y ago
In another comment I briefly mention one use case I have been implementing with LLM's: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42434886 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42434886 I'm being vague with the details because this is one of the features in our product that's a big advantage over competitors. To get to that point I experimented with and prototyped a lot using LLM's; I did a deep dive into how they work from the ground up. I understand the tech and its strengths. But likewise the weaknesses -- or perhaps more apt, the use cases which are more "magic show" than actually useful. I never dismissed LLM's as useless, but I am as confident as I can possibly be that LLM's on their own cannot and will not put programmers out of jobs. They're a great tool, but they're not what many people seem to be fooled into believing that they are; they are not "intelligent" nor "agents". Maybe it'll be a bit difficult for juniors to get entry level jobs for a short while due to a misunderstanding of the tech and all the hype, but that'll equalize pretty quickly once reality sets in.