I teach computer science at Montana State University. I am the father of three sons who all know I am a computer programmer and one of whom, at least, has expressed interest in the field. I love computer programming and try to communicate that love to my sons, the students in my classes and anyone else who will listen.
A question I am increasingly getting from relatives, friends and students is:
Given AI, should I still consider becoming a computer programmer?
My response to this is: “Yes, and…”
As a senior software engineer, I enjoyed the article and agree with the sentiment with regards to education (learning is good).
That being said I don’t think I’d recommend to a friend or family member that they go into this field. The job market for juniors is terrible and companies are much more inclined to believe AI can do it better for cheaper - even at the expense of never teaching the next generation of senior engineers.
Personally, I feel more burnt out than ever reading dozens of low quality PRs every day from juniors who clearly do not know what mistakes to look for. All comments by seniors on PRs are addressed by the AI as well so the traditional feedback <-> learning seems broken - particularly in remote work.
I tell children to learn an artisanal trade they can do with their hands and an artistic skill.
I’m a tech exec. My friends and colleagues of 25+ years include CEOs and other C level execs of very recognizable companies. Etc, etc, blah, blah. I can, with absolute certainty, say that software dev as we know it todayis a dead field.
https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/jack-dorsey-block-layoffs-21944033.php
☝️ This is the mindset out there, and it is spreading. More scary than that is that the technologies are starting to keep up or exceed their expectations.
Do I think that knowing code will be useful? Absolutely. If you are good enough to tear it apart, break it, and fix it better than before, you will be useful. Will you be able to make a good living off of it? Only if you are exceptional, but how do you become exceptional at a job if nobody gives you a job?
I’ll say this much: people don’t have to work for a big, publicly traded corporation. There are still smaller software houses out there where the executives aren’t little more than the shareholders’ fluffer and trust devs to know how to do their jobs, though you may need to look outside of mainstream applications. Whether they have the collective capacity to absorb everyone who wants to be a professional programmer, I don’t know. But in a world of slop, being able to provide even somewhat reliable software may be a gap in the market that could be exploited and allow for that capacity to grow.
100% My firm caters to a very niche segment and that segment requires highly reliable and optimized operations. We are beyond booked. We literally have three environment upgrades and a go live tomorrow (simultaneously) for three different clients. We clean after the vibe coders and get paid very well for our services.
My advice remains the same. There just isn’t a great future in software dev. Yes, to this day we still value custome tailored clothes and hand made, expertly crafted shoes. That doesn’t change the fact that almost all of our clothes and shoes are low quality, quasi- disposable, and 100% machine made.
🤡
More scary than that is that the technologies are starting to keep up or exceed their expectations.
🤡 🤡 🤡
I mean I am a programmer and while I don’t submit many changes written by AI, I review plenty written with its help, and plenty of those are actually decent. Plenty are shit or pointless, some execs’ expectations are utterly insane (“you’ll be submitting a hundred changes a week”). But plenty of others are sensible.
If you interpret “their expectations” as “better”, then let me correct that assumption. Their expectations are to crank out more with less. More what? Yes.
The future is slop code everywhere because profit driven execs will no longer be limited by quality conscious engineers.
Yeah, but it might take years for these slop companies to actually collapse under the weight of their own tech debt. Do you know how many quarters that is!
Will they collapse? I don’t think you are taking into consideration the rampant corruption in the government. We’re going to end up footing the bill…I guarantee it.
We are footing the bill already. The average 401k is paying the CEOs salary while they gut each company.
But yes, they will leverage the government to squeeze a bit more, in the end.
