LLMs mean less devs are needed, not no devs. even after serveral more decades, they'll need steering. I've seen agents stuck chasing one issue, when to me the issue was obvious, but I can see how the model would rule out the obvious easily and move on, but my instinct/experience tells me that's where I need to focus time on. This translates into costly token-waste. Secondly, it isn't simply "quality", the LLM might generate something that's good quality from its perspective, but it simply won't consider things unless it's explicitly told to in excruciating detail, and even then! understanding things from a simian point of view can't be perfected without that simian experience as part of its training. It can come very close but not quite.

Think of it this way, who needs engineering managers, project managers, scrum masters,etc.. if they're employable then surely actual devs that can tell what good architecture is vs bad, good code vs potentially bug code is are also employable.

But the number of devs needed, that demand will obviously decline dramatically. At the same time though, there are other careers that require programming and software dev as part of your skill set. Simply integrating LLM-enabled solutions into real world workflows is a new area that's very young and immature.

Let's not act like we're suddenly in some sort of post-scarcity utopia where all problems are solved by LLMs, where tech can solve problems, there is demand for those who can use technology to do so. However, I see a lot of people attacking the technology and resisting change a lot, and to those I suggest they look up every single technological revolution and see about the fate of such people.

This reads like a self thought ecommerce/small company employee finding its place in the tech world. These people were erased first, understandably. I am meeting more and more of the same type of people.

I had a friend in LA who was sure that CSS and HTML were enough for her to be a "Senior frontend developer". This year she moved to Tennessee and is trying to find a rich husband because she can't find a single job.

I started feeling like a factory worker well before LLMs. My reputation and network stopped mattering and it all came down to take this assessment and do this Leetcode to prove you are a good enough replaceable cog. I have about 15 more years before retirement and I doubt there is anything left to look forward to in my career.

If the majority of the people have selected a direction you either opt in or opt out.

That's the hard truth.

Governments do dot care on our future, only on who pays them. This is the tragedy.

I think the author missed the forest for the trees - the domain knowledge is what allowed him to successfully use the AI because he instantly knew what was correct or not.

Constant use of AI will probably erode that knowledge over time just because of not practising it, but successful use in complex domain needs the domain knowledge to steer it away from icebergs or hallucination or model flaws.

Just want to point out that code quality and architecture is actually eroded by codes 5.5. It’s over for this job I think.

I think we are all vulnerable and need to reassess what it is we bring.

Agents merely accelerate and equalize the playing field. And they cost money. We might be a dying breed, but we are the best operators of this technology. And if we want it, this is our moment.

Yes, get into wood working.

Isn't the solution to learn business skills?

My challenge is seeking good resources for the business skills. I'm doing sales for a passion project for the first time, and it's teaching me a lot. I'm just confused still on why it feels so hard and why I can't find an easier way.

Think of it like this

You’ve already faced this the entire time with… libraries on github.

If employers knew how much you can just use a new standard library, or ask you to “use React”, that’s a lot like asking you to use an LLM to speed things up. You also benefit from the collective wisdom of a lot of people. Do you write assembly or pixel shaders by hand?

I can't write what I really think because my name is attached to my account.

Let me just say AI is not nearly as good as the billions of dollars in marketing spend say.

We are months away from catastrophic bed shitting and the tech industry will pay the piper.