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Coders Automating Their Own Job

theatlantic.com

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Re: Coders Automating Their Own Job

#91

Post by suyash »

wvenable wrote: post #8

It should be noted that programmers are not automating themselves out of programming jobs . They're automating themselves out of data entry, or testing, or any number of other mindless tasks easily done by computers.

That may be true in some cases like testing, build automation etc however when CS engineers are developing AI services and Bots, in the long run they will be automating programmers who used to do those things by hand. So Technology will eventually disrupt Coders as well and they will have to skill up or find a new job.

Re: Coders Automating Their Own Job

#92

Post by onion2k »

wvenable wrote: post #8

It should be noted that programmers are not automating themselves out of programming jobs . They're automating themselves out of data entry, or testing, or any number of other mindless tasks easily done by computers.

Plenty of developers automate the code writing too; toolkits, boilerplates, generators, code mods, etc are very popular.

Re: Coders Automating Their Own Job

#93

Post by imh »

If you wanted to only work 2 hours per week, do you think there's a place in the industry for you? Maybe for a freelancer or consultant or anything else where you are outside the company, but there's no place for this internally anywhere, no matter how efficient you are with those two hours. As long as that's the case, people will be incentivized to hide how efficient they can be.

The article suggests at the end that these people have a strong position to negotiate, and I wish it were true, but I just don't see it ever happening :(

Re: Coders Automating Their Own Job

#94

Post by vajrabum »

browsercoin wrote: post #27

when I did this at my last job they were like cool, can you automate this and this.... I learned that I was taken advantage of.

Hopefully you put that experience on your resume and got a higher wage at your next job putting your automation skills to good use.

Re: Coders Automating Their Own Job

#95

Post by bigjimmyk3 »

bpchaps wrote: post #46

One thought that keeps me awake at night is that my past automation work has cost others their jobs. I understand that that's "how the world works", but it still deeply affects me that people have lost their livelihoods because of my actions.

It's possible that your automation saved jobs by enabling your former employer / client to remain solvent. Sometimes the choice is not "30 jobs without automation or 10 jobs with automation," but rather "10 jobs with automation or 0 jobs without automation."

Re: Coders Automating Their Own Job

#96

Post by m000 »

crispyambulance wrote: post #67
cortesoft wrote: post #30

> Wary self-automators, he speculates, “don’t trust our workplaces. The boss is going to say thank you, good work, now do it again.” Well, no shit. That is what the job of a programmer is - to keep automating things. There are an INFINITE number of useful things we need to do as a society, so we shouldn't be upset if we automate one of them away. Move on to the next. Of course, programmers should make sure they negot…

> Well, no shit. That is what the job of a programmer is - to keep automating things. I think that many of these scenarios are occurring when NON-programmers realize that their jobs are automate-able and they set out to automate them. It means picking up new skills, practicing them and putting them to use without the consent nor permission of management. It is not necessarily an easy path, it takes time, and there's…

What if you automated your job on your own free time?

Re: Coders Automating Their Own Job

#97

Post by ummonk »

wvenable wrote: post #8

It should be noted that programmers are not automating themselves out of programming jobs . They're automating themselves out of data entry, or testing, or any number of other mindless tasks easily done by computers.

I think the story of the Indian IT crisis is that good programmers have been automating them out of jobs. Good programmers in India are doing fine at modern tech companies there, but the code-monkeys at Infosys et. al. are struggling.

Re: Coders Automating Their Own Job

#98

Post by Raphmedia »

forinti wrote: post #69

It's interesting how people expect workers to "earn" their salaries through suffering. It's almost religious. At the same time, lots of businesses charge their clients a percentage of their earnings and it's ok.

Funny, I've always seen it the opposite way.

The employer earns my work by giving me a salary. My work has a value and the employer pays for it.

The minute they stop paying me, my offer cease and they lose any future value I might have brought them.

Maybe it's because I did a lot of freelance and agency work before working a full time contract.

Re: Coders Automating Their Own Job

#99

Post by tomjen3 »

michaelbuckbee wrote: post #49
wvenable wrote: post #8

It should be noted that programmers are not automating themselves out of programming jobs . They're automating themselves out of data entry, or testing, or any number of other mindless tasks easily done by computers.

Development jobs are shifting as more and more towards "plugging APIs together" and much less end to end development. Modern web dev is fantastically more productive and efficient than it was 10 or 15 years ago. Most/many SAAS apps are substitutes for aspects of what previously would have been part of a developers job to put into place.

Careful, that is only true if you look at a very small subsection of programming.

And perhaps even then not so much: at a minimum you probably need to write unit tests.

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