5 ms·

This moment is coming for software developers too

tombert 5mo ago
Yeah almost certainly, especially the ones who made a career out of "copypaste from StackOverflow", which is most engineers. But even the good engineers should likely be a little worried.
- zuzululu 5mo ago
  why would it be different for other people if you already said senior level is not writing code but planning things out? is there something about planning that LLMs cannot do being your crux of the argument? what do you believe about your jobs or function that you think will be immune from AI replacing you? If anything it seems your role is not that dissimilar to those translating languages or business requirements. I am struggling to see what it is about this planning you do that cannot be done by AI because it seems to me thats not where the moat is rather I find the middle man jobs to be the most vulnerable to AI immediately much more than people writing code. Because at least someone is watching the outputs from AI and understands the code and can communicate it easily back to the stakeholders without the middle man gate keeping and applying their "taste". I have a feeling that anyone in your shoes is going to be working with code soon or they won't have much to offer anymore to the business. A stakeholder could easily replace the middle layer with AI and even as a business owner myself I do not see any need to add any more humans at the layer anymore unless they write code.
VBprogrammer 5mo ago
I think there is going to be a long time before all of the obscure knowledge of a decent software developer can be completely replaced by AI. Though the job is going to change beyond recognition. It already has in many ways.
rootusrootus 5mo ago
More specifically, it is coming for coders. If you make your living by banging out lines of code all day, then you may want to be looking at adjusting your career trajectory. But if that is your job, you are either very junior, or a bit foolish for getting into that situation.
- zuzululu 5mo ago
  so what is software developer doing if writing code is not part of their job I don't see how not writing code is being offered as a moat, it seems like that is just translating business/stakeholder requirements to architecture/biz processes which is exactly the type of low hanging fruit that AI will capture first or was it your point that the position sits closer to the stakeholders (relatively compared to those lifting) thus immune from replacement by AI or is your argument that your taste is exquisite that no AI will be able to match it like it already has with software so far and it will not improve beyond the current state
  - skydhash 5mo ago
    So what a lab researcher doing if typing articles is not part of the job?
    - jujube3 5mo ago
      Well--well look. I already told you: I deal with the god damn customers so the engineers don't have to. I have people skills; I am good at dealing with people. Can't you understand that? What the hell is wrong with you people? https://www.reddit.com/r/ProductManagement/comments/uy1ot1/what_is_it_you_do_my_new_official_idgaf_answer/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ProductManagement/comments/uy1ot1/w...
  - tombert 5mo ago
    If you get to senior level then most of your job probably is not writing code, but planning things out. The code is largely an implementation detail. At least that's how it was for me, maybe other peoples' careers are different.
    - bluefirebrand 5mo ago
      Yes, my career has been different. At my workplaces seniors still have to code because they dont want to hire juniors The "planning things out" has moved to another layer, called "architects"
daveguy 5mo ago
But not before a huge crash in optimism about their capabilities. Specifically wrt accuracy, reliability, efficiency, and organization/architecture.
ixtli 5mo ago
I think this collapses a global, complex heirarchy of software engineering workers into a single monolith and serves only to advertise for frontier LLM providers. the point where you no longer need engineers is not going to be reached by making LLMs better and better.

Yeah almost certainly, especially the ones who made a career out of "copypaste from StackOverflow", which is most engineers. But even the good engineers should likely be a little worried.

zuzululu 5mo ago
why would it be different for other people if you already said senior level is not writing code but planning things out? is there something about planning that LLMs cannot do being your crux of the argument? what do you believe about your jobs or function that you think will be immune from AI replacing you? If anything it seems your role is not that dissimilar to those translating languages or business requirements. I am struggling to see what it is about this planning you do that cannot be done by AI because it seems to me thats not where the moat is rather I find the middle man jobs to be the most vulnerable to AI immediately much more than people writing code. Because at least someone is watching the outputs from AI and understands the code and can communicate it easily back to the stakeholders without the middle man gate keeping and applying their "taste". I have a feeling that anyone in your shoes is going to be working with code soon or they won't have much to offer anymore to the business. A stakeholder could easily replace the middle layer with AI and even as a business owner myself I do not see any need to add any more humans at the layer anymore unless they write code.

VBprogrammer 5mo ago

I think there is going to be a long time before all of the obscure knowledge of a decent software developer can be completely replaced by AI. Though the job is going to change beyond recognition. It already has in many ways.

rootusrootus 5mo ago

More specifically, it is coming for coders. If you make your living by banging out lines of code all day, then you may want to be looking at adjusting your career trajectory. But if that is your job, you are either very junior, or a bit foolish for getting into that situation.

zuzululu 5mo ago
so what is software developer doing if writing code is not part of their job I don't see how not writing code is being offered as a moat, it seems like that is just translating business/stakeholder requirements to architecture/biz processes which is exactly the type of low hanging fruit that AI will capture first or was it your point that the position sits closer to the stakeholders (relatively compared to those lifting) thus immune from replacement by AI or is your argument that your taste is exquisite that no AI will be able to match it like it already has with software so far and it will not improve beyond the current state
- skydhash 5mo ago
  So what a lab researcher doing if typing articles is not part of the job?
  - jujube3 5mo ago
    Well--well look. I already told you: I deal with the god damn customers so the engineers don't have to. I have people skills; I am good at dealing with people. Can't you understand that? What the hell is wrong with you people? https://www.reddit.com/r/ProductManagement/comments/uy1ot1/what_is_it_you_do_my_new_official_idgaf_answer/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ProductManagement/comments/uy1ot1/w...
- tombert 5mo ago
  If you get to senior level then most of your job probably is not writing code, but planning things out. The code is largely an implementation detail. At least that's how it was for me, maybe other peoples' careers are different.
  - bluefirebrand 5mo ago
    Yes, my career has been different. At my workplaces seniors still have to code because they dont want to hire juniors The "planning things out" has moved to another layer, called "architects"

daveguy 5mo ago

But not before a huge crash in optimism about their capabilities. Specifically wrt accuracy, reliability, efficiency, and organization/architecture.

ixtli 5mo ago

I think this collapses a global, complex heirarchy of software engineering workers into a single monolith and serves only to advertise for frontier LLM providers. the point where you no longer need engineers is not going to be reached by making LLMs better and better.