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Ask HN: Is my career doomed if I don’t become an AI/ML Developer?

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Re: Ask HN: Is my career doomed if I don’t become an AI/ML Developer?

#31

Post by chrisco255 »

A lot of people are saying here that your career won't be doomed, and I think they make decent points. However, to play devil's advocate, I would like to argue that your career is in fact doomed if you don't learn AI/ML.

A lot of folks like to smugly predict the future based on their individual experience during past technology cycles. The advancements coming out from AI, however, are completely different than anything humans have seen before. It is entirely possible with deep learning that entire sectors of tech could be automated away. Maybe front end development doesn't get fully automated, but perhaps we build tech that makes a single developer 10-100x more productive? Then the labor demand for front end developers could drop in the same way that bank teller jobs have dropped due to ATMs and online banking. I would argue that while software is eating the world, AI is going to eat software.

Don't discount AI. Learn as much as you can about it and perhaps your career will be the last one to be automated away...

Re: Ask HN: Is my career doomed if I don’t become an AI/ML Developer?

#32

Post by le-mark »

ryandrake wrote: post #26
aaronbrethorst wrote: post #6

No. 1997: Is my career doomed if I don't become a web developer? No. 2007: Is my career doomed if I don't become a mobile developer? No. 2017: Is my career doomed if I don't become an AI/ML developer? No. 2027: Is my career doomed if I don't become a/an [...]? No.

Best answer so far. Technology fads come and go. Anyone in the business for any length of time has seen so many of them. If you just get your news from the HN bubble, you're likely to believe AI/ML is all anyone does anymore, but I'd speculate that it's needed in less than 1% of all programming projects out there now and in the near future. If you're a programmer, focus on the fundamentals: Learn to write new code an…

The fads are cyclical too. This isn't the first go around for AI, the last time AI was hot was the 80's, then there was the famous AI 'winter'. It's important to recognize hype for what it easy. Like the thread on meteor.js the other day. After the hype subsided, a lot of people realized they didn't really need what meteor.js provided.

Re: Ask HN: Is my career doomed if I don’t become an AI/ML Developer?

#33

Post by samsonradu »

vturner wrote: post #12

There's plenty of comments on saying no your career is not doomed. I'll add that using HackerNews is not a strong way of grasping industry needs. If one took their advice solely from HackerNews, one might think the only tech that matters is JavaScript and associated framework of the season. This is simply not true...check out indeed.com, many many languages are in demand. Lastly, AI might be the thing of the future b…

I think I’ve seen more JS bashing on HackerNews than anywhere else, I disagree with your example. Not sure though if grasping industry needs here is good or not.

Re: Ask HN: Is my career doomed if I don’t become an AI/ML Developer?

#35

Post by karkisuni »

chrisco255 wrote: post #31

A lot of people are saying here that your career won't be doomed, and I think they make decent points. However, to play devil's advocate, I would like to argue that your career is in fact doomed if you don't learn AI/ML. A lot of folks like to smugly predict the future based on their individual experience during past technology cycles. The advancements coming out from AI, however, are completely different than anythi…

Bank teller jobs have actually increased since ATMs were introduced. I don't necessarily disagree with your point, but bad example.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/technology-isnt-a-job-killer-14...

Re: Ask HN: Is my career doomed if I don’t become an AI/ML Developer?

#36

Post by ecaradec »

If you are interested in the field, it might be helpful to pay for a teacher and ask for advices. A teacher will be able to trace a path from the level you are now and help you learn just enough math for you to get started. It's way easier, take less time and is less frustrating. In France it's possible to get a math teacher from 30€ to 50€ an hour.

Re: Ask HN: Is my career doomed if I don’t become an AI/ML Developer?

#37

Post by projectramo »

Not at all. You can still learn about blockchain.

Jokes aside, you don't have to learn AI/ML specifically to remain relevant, but you have to learn something. You can learn:

- about a domain (energy, finance, medicine)

- a toolset (math, stats, programming, design),

- a "hot" new technology (bitcoin, drones, wearables, VR),

- put together a network of talented people and so on.

You have to do something, but not necessarily any particular thing.

Re: Ask HN: Is my career doomed if I don’t become an AI/ML Developer?

#39

Post by myth_drannon »

vturner wrote: post #12

There's plenty of comments on saying no your career is not doomed. I'll add that using HackerNews is not a strong way of grasping industry needs. If one took their advice solely from HackerNews, one might think the only tech that matters is JavaScript and associated framework of the season. This is simply not true...check out indeed.com, many many languages are in demand. Lastly, AI might be the thing of the future b…

Right, like reading HN you would think Django/Rails is what people are using for web frameworks. But actually Spring is more popular if you check StackOverflow careers for example. HN is an echo chamber of ML or JS hypes

Re: Ask HN: Is my career doomed if I don’t become an AI/ML Developer?

#40

Post by triplee »

aaronbrethorst wrote: post #6

No. 1997: Is my career doomed if I don't become a web developer? No. 2007: Is my career doomed if I don't become a mobile developer? No. 2017: Is my career doomed if I don't become an AI/ML developer? No. 2027: Is my career doomed if I don't become a/an [...]? No.

Evergreen. I've been doing this professionally since 2000, with coding going back to the mid 90s when I was in school.

I'm at a client site that is still rolling things from their MAINFRAMES into web apps. I know some old LISP programmers that are freaking out that major systems will die because the youngest person on the team is pushing 60 with no code or programmer replacement in site.

There's always a long tail, and always something new coming out.

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