Why AI hasn't replaced software engineers, and won't • Hacker News Board

Re: Why AI hasn't replaced software engineers, and won't

#51

Post by lelanthran » Thu, Jun 11, 2026, 10:54 AM UTC

simianwords wrote: post #26

Just look and see what Cloud did for software engineers? It pushed us one level higher and lowered the demand for "db experts" and "low level systems people". The only ones who remained were the strong ones who were hired into the cloud companies. The rest moved up and changed careers. Why would anyone think the same thing won't apply here? If you are still a Typescript bunny who fiddles with some newly learned React…

> Why would anyone think the same thing won't apply here?

Because there's nothing to "move up into" other than "spec, optionally design".

Because the jobs that had "spec, design but don't code" already existed for decades, and pay less than half what the "design + code" person earned.

Re: Why AI hasn't replaced software engineers, and won't

#52

Post by properbrew » Thu, Jun 11, 2026, 10:55 AM UTC

nicce wrote: post #16

christkv wrote: post #3

I have found that the attention moves to thinking about the things I want done and planning, reading and iterating over the specs and other artefacts that will be part of running the agents. I still need to understand the code and iterate over it to get to a usable and maintainable point. I find the problem is we are reaching the top of the slop curve. I will subside because it's impossible to actually do anything us…

LLMs still do not have proper contextual understanding of their solutions. Just couple days ago I was using GPT 5.5 with xhigh to vide code some application, and yet it defaulted for sorting dates from new to old by using plain string comparison. Just one of the many bugs.

This absolutely fascinates me. I had a friend who needed subtitle files generating for audio and using in CapCut yesterday yet none of the available stuff was suitable, so he asked if I could adapt some of my software to export subtitles.

2 hours later he's got a fully working piece of local software that does exactly what he wants, yet yours is not able to even sort dates correctly. Feel free to download it if you want to see for yourself, I didn't even do any UI tweaks as this was just a tool for him to use:

Linux - https://downloads.blazingbanana.com/whistle-subtitles/unstab...

Windows - https://downloads.blazingbanana.com/whistle-subtitles/unstab...

Mac - https://downloads.blazingbanana.com/whistle-subtitles/unstab...

How can there be such a massive gap in what can be produced?

Re: Why AI hasn't replaced software engineers, and won't

#53

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jun 11, 2026, 10:55 AM UTC

baalimago wrote: post #6

It most certainly will replace software engineers. What's missing is, as the article suggests, the "Delivery" bit. But that's not the realm of software engineers, that's the realm of DevOps/SRE/Cloud engineers. I work as a cloud engineer and have been contacted by multiple non-engineering friends who have now been able to create their pet projects from scratch in different languages and have it running locally, as we…

[deleted]

Re: Why AI hasn't replaced software engineers, and won't

#54

Post by jvanderbot » Thu, Jun 11, 2026, 10:56 AM UTC

baalimago wrote: post #28

fsloth wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"has already replaced several software engineers. " I think this is incorrect, unless your friends employed software engineers, or would have employed software engineers.

That's the point: they would have. Now they spend money on tokens instead (and a equity to me who set up their environment)

If it works, it works. But you, sir, are a software engineer building and selling software and software maintenance to people with money / equity to give. You are your own counter example at the moment.

Re: Why AI hasn't replaced software engineers, and won't

#55

Post by altern8 » Thu, Jun 11, 2026, 10:57 AM UTC

baalimago wrote: post #28

fsloth wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"has already replaced several software engineers. " I think this is incorrect, unless your friends employed software engineers, or would have employed software engineers.

That's the point: they would have. Now they spend money on tokens instead (and a equity to me who set up their environment)

They weren't going to, if not they would've done it already in the past.

You're not going to spend $30,000 and weeks of your time just to see if an idea you had under the shower can make a few bucks as a side project, but now that it's a 5-minute thing that costs you $5, why not.

Re: Why AI hasn't replaced software engineers, and won't

#56

Post by owebmaster » Thu, Jun 11, 2026, 10:58 AM UTC

baalimago wrote: post #6

It most certainly will replace software engineers. What's missing is, as the article suggests, the "Delivery" bit. But that's not the realm of software engineers, that's the realm of DevOps/SRE/Cloud engineers. I work as a cloud engineer and have been contacted by multiple non-engineering friends who have now been able to create their pet projects from scratch in different languages and have it running locally, as we…

There's no lack of such platforms for more than 5 years, they all have free offers and software engineers still have jobs.

Re: Why AI hasn't replaced software engineers, and won't

#57

Post by red75prime » Thu, Jun 11, 2026, 10:59 AM UTC

Lionga wrote: post #21

baalimago wrote: post #6

It most certainly will replace software engineers. What's missing is, as the article suggests, the "Delivery" bit. But that's not the realm of software engineers, that's the realm of DevOps/SRE/Cloud engineers. I work as a cloud engineer and have been contacted by multiple non-engineering friends who have now been able to create their pet projects from scratch in different languages and have it running locally, as we…

Same way 3D printing replaced all common goods, can be done by anyone. Why not just print it yourself?

"Same way"? I struggle to find the similarities. Cheap 3D printers have a distinctly different capability profile from machinery used for mass production. What about coding agents' capabilities is distinctly different from those of human coders and 100% will not change?

Re: Why AI hasn't replaced software engineers, and won't

#58

Post by owebmaster » Thu, Jun 11, 2026, 11:00 AM UTC

nicce wrote: post #31

Lionga wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same way 3D printing replaced all common goods, can be done by anyone. Why not just print it yourself?

The consumer grade 3D printing is just now closing with the factory-level quality. Still not completely there. Is the quality difference similar vs. comparing human made software and LLM generated?

Similar? No. Vibecoded apps are much, much worse.

Re: Why AI hasn't replaced software engineers, and won't

#59

Post by owebmaster » Thu, Jun 11, 2026, 11:01 AM UTC

firmretention wrote: post #40

drstewart wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ruby on Rails generators could build toy projects in like 3 clicks 15 years ago, a Twitter clone being the famous one. Software engineers still continued to exist somehow.

I'm not saying LLMs will replace software developers, but this is such a ridiculous analogy that it hints to me that you've never seriously tried the latest tools.

There's nothing ridiculous about the analogy. Not only Ruby on rails is better than most vibecoded apps but also "git clone"

Re: Why AI hasn't replaced software engineers, and won't

#60

Post by RA_Fisher » Thu, Jun 11, 2026, 11:01 AM UTC

Sadly I think this post will mislead people, bc the difficult truth (for many) is that software engineering isn't that hard and that's why AI can easily substitute that layer (lower barriers to entry than widely believed).