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Firing programmers for AI is a mistake

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Re: Firing programmers for AI is a mistake

#111
post #3

"Let AI replace programmers" is the new "Let’s outsource everything to ." Short-term cost savings, long-term disaster.

[flagged]

Modern development is not as much about writing "good code", but just as much about good communication. There is a very real risk of losing good communication when outsourcing.

Re: Firing programmers for AI is a mistake

#112
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes banks employ less people. In my country there are now account managers handling hundreds of clients virtually. Most of the local managers got fired. I find it easy to say from our privileged position that "tech might replace workers but it'll be fine". Even if all the replaced people aren't unemployed, salaries go down and standards of living for them fall off a cliff. Tech innovation destroys lives in our curren…

> Tech innovation destroys lives in our current capitalist society because only the owners get the benefits. If you want to become a (partial) owner, buy stocks. :-)

The market, in its majestic equality, allows the rich as well as the poor to buy stocks, trade bitcoin, and to own property.

Re: Firing programmers for AI is a mistake

#113

For each programmer who actually spends their time on complex design work or fixing difficult bugs, there are many more doing what amounts to clerical work. Adding a new form here, fiddling with a layout there. It is the latter class who are in real danger.

The new form and layout are what the business wants and can easily articulate. What they need is people who understand whether the new form needs to both be stored in the local postgres system or if it should trigger a Kafka event to notify other parts of the business.

The AI only world is still one where the form and layout get done, but what happens to that data afterward?

Re: Firing programmers for AI is a mistake

#114
post #3

"Let AI replace programmers" is the new "Let’s outsource everything to ." Short-term cost savings, long-term disaster.

[flagged]

It’s not about the ability to write code, it’s about the ability to communicate ideas back and forth. Even just a few time zones is a real issue let alone any linguistic or cultural issues.

Re: Firing programmers for AI is a mistake

#115
post #3

"Let AI replace programmers" is the new "Let’s outsource everything to ." Short-term cost savings, long-term disaster.

[flagged]

Certainly there are competent engineers in every country, but I think what they are referencing is that back in the 90s and 2000s there were a lot of fears from US engineers that they would be replaced by less expensive engineers in other countries, which was attempted by some companies. Ultimately a number of these efforts failed to work well for the company, due to communication barriers and time zone differences.

Re: Firing programmers for AI is a mistake

#117
post #3

"Let AI replace programmers" is the new "Let’s outsource everything to ." Short-term cost savings, long-term disaster.

[flagged]

There's nothing discriminatory about it, it's the same if you outsource things within your own country except the price is higher. Contractors have a totally different way of working because they're not really interested in the long term of a project beyond being retained. If they code something in such a way that causes an issue that takes time to fix later then great - more hours we can charge the client for.

Outsourcing abroad is more difficult because of cultural differences though. Having worked with outsourced devs in India, I found that we got a lot of nodding in meetings when asked if they understood, avoiding saying no, and then it became clear when PRs came in that they didn't actually understand or do what they had been asked to do.

Re: Firing programmers for AI is a mistake

#118
post #11

We have fired all our programmers. However, the AI is hard to work with, it expects specific wording in order to program our code as expected. We have hired people with expertise in the specific language needed to transmit our specifications to the AI with more precision.

> We have hired people with expertise in the specific language needed to transmit our specifications to the AI with more precision.

Also known as programmers.

The "AI" part is irrelevant. Someone with expertise in transmitting specifications to a computer is a programmer, no matter the language.

EDIT: Yep, I realized that it could be the joke, but reading the other comments, it wasn't obvious.

Re: Firing programmers for AI is a mistake

#119
post #3

"Let AI replace programmers" is the new "Let’s outsource everything to ." Short-term cost savings, long-term disaster.

[flagged]

It’s not discriminatory at all! Or even the point OP is trying to make. Taking a significant number of jobs and outsourcing them overnight will quickly result in running out the talent pool in said country. It’s shortsighted and stupid because it assumes that there is an army of developers just sitting around standing by waiting for the next western tech company to give them high paying remote jobs. A large portion of that talent pool is already reserved by the biggest corporations.

Build up to it and foster growth in your overseas teams and you’ll do well. Thinking you can transform your department overnight _is_ a great way to boost your share price, cash out on a fat payday and walk away before your product quality tanks.

Re: Firing programmers for AI is a mistake

#120
post #11

We have fired all our programmers. However, the AI is hard to work with, it expects specific wording in order to program our code as expected. We have hired people with expertise in the specific language needed to transmit our specifications to the AI with more precision.

What job title are you thinking of using?

Soft Waste Enjoyer
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