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Ask HN: The death of software development as a job?

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Re: Ask HN: The death of software development as a job?

#21

Post by magicalhippo »

coldtea wrote: post #20
akerl_ wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but still need many man-weeks or months or even years with a large team to make it into code. That's an argument that writing code was the time-consuming part, which is different from it being the difficult part.

Well, that itself is a dillema about "which is the most difficult part", whereas the discussion is about whether AI will severely impact/kill the coding job market. For which question, whether writing code is the most difficult part or not is irrelevant. It's still the part on whch most employed develoopers spend the most time on, and thus, if it gets more/fully automated, a lot of those jobs will be killed.

> For which question, whether writing code is the most difficult part or not is irrelevant.

I find it exactly opposite, in that because most coding is not very difficult in most cases, it is the part that will be replaced by AI.

Re: Ask HN: The death of software development as a job?

#22

Post by y42 »

Most comments already explained it, however:

No! It's a common misunderstanding (imho) that software development is about "writing code" or knowing a programming language's syntax. It never was, it never will be. I experienced this misunderstanding:

I never studied CS or IT or anything related. All my skills are self taught, starting when I was a litle boy. When I was young, I had problems getting into this busines, because HR and recruiters where tasking me with "Write this using this ". They wanted to see A grades from 6 years of a master in CS.

Well. I am not that guy that memorizes syntax or coding rules. My approach is very different - and so are many, I assume. And this is what software development is about: You get a problem and you find a way to solve it. At many stations in my professional career I was able to proof that. I "mastered" Pascal from the scratch, on the job. Same goes for VBA, Shell scripting, Python, PHP, JavaScript... you name it.

It may sound arrogant - but then you misunderstood what I am trying to say: The language, the syntax, the coding rules are just "tools" for me. I don't care what I use. I focus on the problem.

Isn't it the same as "Write this using this " you may ask? No. Because this expects a specific solution. Not saying this will not lead to a result. It just a very narrow view on the solution.

There are good software developers that can answer those questions "Write this using this ". That's not the point. The point is: There are also great software developers who can't.

With AI you don't have to worry to memorize syntax or rules. You can focus on the problem solving process.

So, AI is changing how software will be created. It make it more efficient. And it changes how HR and recruites hopefully will look at this profession. It's not about A grades in a CS class.

Re: Ask HN: The death of software development as a job?

#26

Post by akerl_ »

red-iron-pine wrote: post #24
akerl_ wrote: post #2

I guess go work at McDonalds.

"coding is deminishing as an industry and the long term viability is shaky, or even dying" "just go work in fast food" this is the high quality discussion HN is known for

Do you want a longer form rant about how maybe this is a sign that we should care that other fields pay a livable wage, and that it was folly for tech workers to imagine ourselves as more deserving of big piles of money than other people?

It’s really interesting watching the upper class chafing against the beginnings of the same thing that’s been affecting the vast majority of humans on the planet for a while now.

Re: Ask HN: The death of software development as a job?

#27

Post by tacostakohashi »

Going along with the McDonald's metaphor, sure, there is a (big) place in the market for low-cost, high-volume slop. There's also room in the market for Michelin star chefs and restaurants, and a whole spectrum inbetween, these options aren't exclusive.

40-50 years ago, being a specialist secretary / typist was a thing, being able to quickly and proficiently write documents using a typewriter from notes or dictation. Then, with word processing, people could do it themselves to a large extent, but there's still typesetting as a skillset for books, newpapers, advertisements, etc. I think programming is like that, it used to be that anyone who wanted some software done would need to get a specialist to handle it, now, lots of them will be able to get pretty far themselves... but there will always be a small place for skilled people for highly critical stuff.

Re: Ask HN: The death of software development as a job?

#29

Post by austin-cheney »

Another doom and gloom post about SkyNet killing all the children in AskHN.

Yes, there will still be very many programming jobs for humans.

Yes, AI will eventually kill all the programming jobs staffed by people who cannot program, the pretenders.

Is programming really all about writing code? Yes, mostly. Yes, soft skills and communication skills are more important but writing code is your bread and butter. If you do not understand your craft then those more important qualities don't matter. You have no baseline upon which to exercise those more important skills.

If you are the kind of person who cannot tell the difference between writing original code versus pretender then yes, I would absolutely look for a career change. If you write software as a hobby yet struggle to land a job in sea of pretenders then there is a dim light in your future that will only get brighter with time.

How to identify the pretenders:

* Ask the person to measure something. Provide the means to gather data but not the data itself.

* If they need a magic framework because data structures are scary, such as React because the DOM is a mad bedtime killer in the dark.

* If every decision point is a game of bike shedding or Halloween costume.

* When the goal is to look busy or appear as a hero savior, as opposed to just completing an assignment quickly.

* If tasked to write original work is scarier than death in a Saw movie.

Re: Ask HN: The death of software development as a job?

#30

Post by ferguess_k »

SWE is not going to die, but it is going to change. With the help LLM, nowadays many companies require developers to keep up with the speed. A task that was originally estimated for a few days because the developer needed to read the doc, understands the problem, and work on it. Nowadays it was expected to do it ASAP with the help of AI. AI is powerful enough to work on most of my problems already -- they need a few tweaks but essentially I can vibe code without thinking through too much. The consequence is that I as a developer do not have the time to learn.

That's why I have decided to perhaps leave the field. I want to move to some other fields where programmers are still expected to learn engineering in the old way.

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