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Looking at this from a software dev perspective: - The moment AI is actually good enough to replace us, it will also be incredibly easy to create new software/

Looking at this from a software dev perspective: - The moment AI is actually good enough to replace us, it will also be incredibly easy to create new software/apps/whatever. There could/would be a billion solo dev SAAS companies eating the lunch of every traditional tech org. - People (Executives) seem to underestimate just how much of the work is iterating and refining a product over a long time. Getting an LLM good enough to complete a Jira task is missing the point. - IMO LLM's are also completely draining the motivation of workers. A lot of software devs are intrinsically motivated by solving the problem. If your role is being watered down to "prompt the chat bot and baby sit what comes out", the motivation disappears. This also absolutely destroys any of the creativity/discovery that comes out of solving the task hands-on.

resolutefunctor 1y ago
Your perspective on your last point is interesting. I actually feel the opposite, its become a motivator for me. I used to love coding, and did it a ton. Then it became less and less part of my job, and I started hating coding. It was so frustrating when I knew exactly what needed to be done in the code, but had to spend the time doing low value stuff like typing syntax, tracing through the code to find the right file to edit, etc when I'm already strapped for time. LLMs and agentic coding tools have allowed me to not spend time on the low-value tasks of typing, but instead on the high-value tasks of solving problems like you mentioned. Just interesting the different perspectives we have.
- rybosworld 1y ago
  That's a fair point and I actually agree with you. A large part of writing code is doing something menial as you said. I think both of the viewpoints are valid depending on where you're at in your career. We can imagine a junior developer who isn't quite bored with those low-value tasks just yet. As you grow more senior/experienced, the novel problems become harder to find - and those are the one's you want to work on. AI can certainly help you cut through the chaff so you have more time to focus on those. But trends are trends and AI is increasingly getting better at solving the novel/interesting problems that I think you're referring to. Everyone's different and I know there are folks who are excited to not have to write a single line of code. I'd wager that's not actually most engineers/developers though. People still garden by hand because it's innately satisfying.
  - resolutefunctor 1y ago
    Super well said! Love the garden analogy!

resolutefunctor 1y ago

Your perspective on your last point is interesting. I actually feel the opposite, its become a motivator for me. I used to love coding, and did it a ton. Then it became less and less part of my job, and I started hating coding. It was so frustrating when I knew exactly what needed to be done in the code, but had to spend the time doing low value stuff like typing syntax, tracing through the code to find the right file to edit, etc when I'm already strapped for time. LLMs and agentic coding tools have allowed me to not spend time on the low-value tasks of typing, but instead on the high-value tasks of solving problems like you mentioned. Just interesting the different perspectives we have.

rybosworld 1y ago
That's a fair point and I actually agree with you. A large part of writing code is doing something menial as you said. I think both of the viewpoints are valid depending on where you're at in your career. We can imagine a junior developer who isn't quite bored with those low-value tasks just yet. As you grow more senior/experienced, the novel problems become harder to find - and those are the one's you want to work on. AI can certainly help you cut through the chaff so you have more time to focus on those. But trends are trends and AI is increasingly getting better at solving the novel/interesting problems that I think you're referring to. Everyone's different and I know there are folks who are excited to not have to write a single line of code. I'd wager that's not actually most engineers/developers though. People still garden by hand because it's innately satisfying.
- resolutefunctor 1y ago
  Super well said! Love the garden analogy!