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GitHub Copilot: The Agent Awakens

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201–210 of 260 posts

Re: GitHub Copilot: The Agent Awakens

#201

I am so over this LLM obsession. Please let it end

Sorry, this is as paradigmatic a shift as microcomputers, the consumer internet and smartphones.

If you really really hate it, you'll either have to leave the industry or stay way out of the mainstream.

Re: GitHub Copilot: The Agent Awakens

#203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve been developing professionally since 1996. It’s different this time. The first crash happened in 2000 not because most of the ideas were bad. But because enough potential customers weren’t on the internet. Things didn’t recover until 2009-2010 when high speed internet was ubiquitous and more people started having computers in their pockets with high speed internet and the mobile app stores. Between that time was…

So what do you even do then? I'm completely at a loss now.

I submitted this article to HN earlier. I’m not the author.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42818169

Short version is don’t be a “ticket taker”. Move closer to the customer/stakeholder and further away from the IDE. Think in terms of adding business value and focus more on strategy than tactics (pulling well defined stories off the board).

https://www.levels.fyi/blog/swe-level-framework.html

I didn’t just pull “scope”, “impact” and “ambiguity” out of thin air. The leveling guidelines of all the tech companies boil down to this in one way or the other.

This is Dropbox’s for instance.

https://dropbox.github.io/dbx-career-framework/

I’ve been moving closer to the “business” for a decade now after spending almost two decades as your bog standard enterprise dev. I haven’t done much active coding except some simple Python scripts in almost 3 years.

My focus is now strategic cloud consulting focusing on application development. I’m not saying necessarily “learn cloud”. Learning how to deal with “the business” and leading implementations that deliver business value is the objective. The “cloud” just happens to be my tool. I’m slowly adding Big Data/ML/“AI” to my tool belt.

Re: GitHub Copilot: The Agent Awakens

#204
post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds like you've never used a welding torch, installed a kitchen sink, or done similar blue collar work. These jobs will never be replaced by robots, or by a non-trained person wearing a headset.

> It sounds like you've never used a welding torch, installed a kitchen sink, or done similar blue collar work. These jobs will never be replaced by robots, or by a non-trained person wearing a headset. Why do you think they will never be replaced by robots?

Not the person who said it and I wouldn't say "never"...

But I will say that until we have a robot that can fold laundry, we won't have a robot that can go into your crawlspace and replace a chunk of crusty old galvanized pipe with copper or pex.

Robots have excelled, so far, in controlled environments. Dealing with the chaos of plumbing in a building that has been "improved" by different people over the course of a century is the opposite of that.

Re: GitHub Copilot: The Agent Awakens

#205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you define as a “senior developer”? Someone who “codez real gud” and can pass “leetCode hard” interviews or the tech industries definition of a senior developer who operates at a certain level of scope, impact and “dealing with ambiguity” and can deliver business value? The former type of senior developer will be a commodity and see their pay stagnate or even go down as companies find cheaper labor, AI and mo…

> a senior developer who operates at a certain level of scope, impact and “dealing with ambiguity” and can deliver business value? Is there any chance for me (a student) to become like this? I'm fine with coding changing (I just love computing) but I'm scared of the entirety of the field being completely torched.

Please take my advice with a huge grain of salt. It’s been literally decades since I was an entry level developer. I try my best to keep my ear to the ground and look through the eyes of people at all levels of the industry. Part of my job is mentorship as a “staff software architect” at a consulting company.

What would I do these days? I would stay in computer science and if possible get an MBA. I dropped out of graduate school in 2001. But what I learned helped me a lot.

If you can’t go to graduate school, at least take a few business classes. I think the only way to survive will be focusing more on the business than the technology and work for a consulting company.

I don’t mean being a “consultant” who is really just a hands on keyboard coder doing staff augmentation. I mean working for one of the Big 5 consulting firms or one of the smaller equivalents.

The US is definitely moving toward privatization and the first thing they do is bring in more consultants.

I don’t work for any of them. I specialize in strategic cloud consulting. But that market seems congested at the low end.

Re: GitHub Copilot: The Agent Awakens

#206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what do you even do then? I'm completely at a loss now.

I submitted this article to HN earlier. I’m not the author. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42818169 Short version is don’t be a “ticket taker”. Move closer to the customer/stakeholder and further away from the IDE. Think in terms of adding business value and focus more on strategy than tactics (pulling well defined stories off the board). https://www.levels.fyi/blog/swe-level-framework.html I didn’t just pull “…

Hmm. I maintain a pretty big open-source project, so I guess I'm already kinda that? I honestly love computing moreso than I love coding. I'm not very familiar with business concepts though.

Re: GitHub Copilot: The Agent Awakens

#207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I submitted this article to HN earlier. I’m not the author. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42818169 Short version is don’t be a “ticket taker”. Move closer to the customer/stakeholder and further away from the IDE. Think in terms of adding business value and focus more on strategy than tactics (pulling well defined stories off the board). https://www.levels.fyi/blog/swe-level-framework.html I didn’t just pull “…

Hmm. I maintain a pretty big open-source project, so I guess I'm already kinda that? I honestly love computing moreso than I love coding. I'm not very familiar with business concepts though.

I really hate to say this. But open source contributions don’t matter either. It’s only what you do for a company. No one has time to look at an open source repository. Every open job these days have thousands of applications. They aren’t going to look at your GitHub repo.

Re: GitHub Copilot: The Agent Awakens

#209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm. I maintain a pretty big open-source project, so I guess I'm already kinda that? I honestly love computing moreso than I love coding. I'm not very familiar with business concepts though.

I really hate to say this. But open source contributions don’t matter either. It’s only what you do for a company. No one has time to look at an open source repository. Every open job these days have thousands of applications. They aren’t going to look at your GitHub repo.

I see now. You mean real business stuff. At that point I may as well do a startup.

Re: GitHub Copilot: The Agent Awakens

#210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really hate to say this. But open source contributions don’t matter either. It’s only what you do for a company. No one has time to look at an open source repository. Every open job these days have thousands of applications. They aren’t going to look at your GitHub repo.

I see now. You mean real business stuff. At that point I may as well do a startup.

So taking the wrong lessons from what I’m saying :).

It’s even harder doing a startup straight out of college with no business skills, no network, and no real world experience.

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