Do companies hire less because of AI or try to rely more on AI because they can’t afford to hire?
Tech layoffs have been happening even before LLMs.
The next two years of software engineering
351–360 of 403 posts
Re: The next two years of software engineering
#352I don't know, we hired a junior developer and are about to hire another. Not sure it collapsed. I just think it's really hard to get a job across the board right now.
Re: The next two years of software engineering
#353Earlier quoted context omitted.
Amen. It's hard to live with hope right now at all. Programmer or otherwise we're constantly told we're all going to be replaced and the economy is a mess (US). Definitely a depressing time to be alive.
Not sure that is warranted. AI will create exciting changes to society for the better. These times are uncertain but certainly not depressing .
AI companies are not even pretending they will improve society.
They are promising CEOs they can eliminate their workforce to increase profits. For people working for a wage it’s all downside, no upside.
Re: The next two years of software engineering
#354Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not sure that is warranted. AI will create exciting changes to society for the better. These times are uncertain but certainly not depressing .
I think we can assume it will create disruption, but by definition this is both positive and negative for different individuals & dimensions, and it is small solace if society improves while your life languishes or declines - this is just what's happened to a generation of young males in the US and is having huge repercussions. I think you're right to suggest the goal is to avoid letting the uncertainity make you dep…
It’s positive if you are already wealthy, negative if you have to work for a living.
Re: The next two years of software engineering
#355Earlier quoted context omitted.
You’re focusing on the US. In Europe, worker protections are great. However, Europe has been lagging behind the US for a couple of decades and the gap has been growing. All tech giants are based in the US or China. Maybe things will collapse in the US now, but very unlikely to do so in Europe unless the impact from the US is so great it propagates to Europe, despite Europe itself not having done the things that cause…
Oh I couldn't disagree more. Europe is on the verge of full-blown fascism. Europe has Reform (UK), AfD (Germany) and National Front (France) as well as Hungary. Europe created the Russia-Ukraine problem by giving their energy security to Russia. Interestingly, this is a (super) rare win for the first Trump administration: forcing Europe to build an LNG port in 2018 [1] and warning against the dangers of dependence on…
I was following you until you implied everyone who’s not a communist is a Nazi.
Re: The next two years of software engineering
#356Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is a fresh perspective for me. I'm around 25 and have been struggling with finding some kind of path towards making my career into something sustainable long-term, but never really considered the other side. I think the issue many have on my end is that they don't really have much of anything to stand on while they rebuild yet, whereas they might think that someone more experienced could pivot to business and pe…
Consider people in their 40s have.. A mortgage: if you were assuming a strong income that would continue, you very likely could be forced to sell your house and take a huge loss A family, kids: people relying on you Time: at this point you have retirement plans and financial deadlines you need to hit if it's to ever become a reality God forbid you have any health issues that cost $$$ which tend to come as you age. Ca…
There's a lot of this forum in exactly that position. The fear is real; there is a real risk this AI destroys families and people's lives in the disruption.
Re: The next two years of software engineering
#357Earlier quoted context omitted.
Generally the demand for software engineers has increased as their productivity has increased, looking back over the past few decades. There seems to be effectively infinite demand for software from consumers and enterprises so the cheaper it gets the more they buy. If we doubled agricultural productivity globally we'd need to have fewer farmers because there's no way we can all eat twice as much food. But we can abs…
This reasoning is flawed in my opinion, because at the end of the day, the software still has to be paid for (for the people that want/need to make a living out of it), and customers wallet are finite. Our attention is also a finite resource (24h a day max). We already see how this has been the cause for the enshittificaton of large swathes of software like social media where grabbing the attention for a few seconds…
Most software is paid for by businesses, not consumers.
Re: The next two years of software engineering
#358Sometimes I wonder if I made the wrong choice with software development. Even after getting to a senior role, according to this article, you're still expected to get more education and work on side projects outside of work. Am I supposed to want to code all the time? When can I pursue hobbies, a social life, etc.
>I made the wrong choice with software development. If you didn't like working with computers, then you (and another gazillion people who choose it for the $$$) probably made the wrong choice. But totally depends on what you wanted to get out of it. If you wanted to make $$$ and you are making it, what is the problem? That is assuming you have fun outside of work. But if you wanted to be the best at what you do, then…
AI is making it so that”working with computers” is no longer a viable career path. At least that’s the goal.
As AI allows more and more people to accomplish tasks without a deep understanding of computers, “working with computers“ will be as much of a marketable job skill as “working with pencils” 50 or 100 years ago.
Re: The next two years of software engineering
#359Earlier quoted context omitted.
Your first point hits the nail on the head. We are expected to have side projects and to keep up with new things (outside of work) but most other jobs don't have that. I would be okay with my work sending me off for additional training, on company time, but I don't want it to consume the time I have left after work.
I don't know why but our profession for some reason is different than the others in this respect and people often like to think that this is a norm and if you're not doing it you're not worthwhile. I think it has to do with some interesting psychological effects of people who are generally attracted to this profession but also due to the companies who implemented those mental hacks as a means to attract people who ar…
Software development as a career was born, reached maturity and died in less than 100 years (being generous).
It never had time to develop into a truly professional field like medicine, law or engineering.
Re: The next two years of software engineering
#360All well-documented knowledge fields will be gone if software goes. Then the undocumented ones will become documented, and they too will go. The best advice to junior devs is get a hands on job before robotic articulating sausages are perfected and humans become irrelevant blobs of watery meat.
I'm looking forward to the antics of first-generation robotic plumbers and electricians, myself.
Will be amusing watching them fail at common tasks for a couple years then they will suddenly be better than any human plumber or electrician.