Being "Just a Developer" Isn't Enough Anymore • Hacker News Board

Re: Being "Just a Developer" Isn't Enough Anymore

#21

Post by pjmlp » Tue, Feb 03, 2026, 8:29 AM UTC

recursivedoubts wrote: post #15

SimianSci wrote: post #6

Software Development might be dead, but Software Engineering is alive and well. Anyone seriously interfacing with AI code generation can tell you that understanding how software is composed and architected is, and will continue to be, a requirement to building anything worthwhile. These systems are impressive but we are a far ways away from "Magical Genie Wishes" as a means of creating software.

And where do people think "Software Engineers" come from? Do they spring fully formed from Zeus' forehead?

From universities, having taken the degree, and in some countries the engineering oath as well.

Where graduates learn during a course of three to five years, depending on the country, that Software Engineering isn't only coding.

Re: Being "Just a Developer" Isn't Enough Anymore

#22

Post by mmarian » Tue, Feb 03, 2026, 12:36 PM UTC

9dev wrote: post #16

SimianSci wrote: post #6

Software Development might be dead, but Software Engineering is alive and well. Anyone seriously interfacing with AI code generation can tell you that understanding how software is composed and architected is, and will continue to be, a requirement to building anything worthwhile. These systems are impressive but we are a far ways away from "Magical Genie Wishes" as a means of creating software.

How can you be so sure of that? We moved from completing the next word in a sentence to hey Claude, build me a SaaS awfully quickly. Are you willing to bet your career on a pace slowdown?

If that were the case, why doesn't Anthropic just spin up their own HR software? https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/anthropic/jobs/5023394008

Re: Being "Just a Developer" Isn't Enough Anymore

#23

Post by 9dev » Tue, Feb 03, 2026, 3:54 PM UTC

mmarian wrote: post #22

9dev wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can you be so sure of that? We moved from completing the next word in a sentence to hey Claude, build me a SaaS awfully quickly. Are you willing to bet your career on a pace slowdown?

If that were the case, why doesn't Anthropic just spin up their own HR software? https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/anthropic/jobs/5023394008

Because it's not their company mission to provide an HR tool. Getting started fast doesn't equate to being done somehow; every piece of software still is a liability that requires ongoing maintenance and continued development.

I don't believe everyone will just suddenly start to replace SaaS tools with agent-built versions of them, because economically, that doesn't make sense: Even when we gloss over all human work still required in collaboration with agents, the tokens alone required to build a sufficiently complex system are more expensive over the long term than buying SaaS seats. So there's that.