The conversation

Lessons learnedExperience excerpt · English

As a software engineer, I'd love if the industry had an actual breakthrough, if we found a way to …

… As a software engineer, I'd love if the industry had an actual breakthrough, if we found a way to make the hard parts easier and prevent software projects from devolving into balls of chaos and complexity. But not if the only reward for this would be to be laid off. So, once again, the old question: If reducing jobs is the only goal, but people are also expected to have jobs to be able to pay for food and housing, what is the end goal here? What is the vision that those companies are trying to realize?

Original discussionAI Didn't Simplify Software Engineering: It Just Made Bad Engineering Easier113 source comments · at import
4

Community replies 0

No community replies yet. Add your perspective.

Replies from the source 4

Direct replies available in this import. Original-language excerpts.

ST

> if we found a way to make the hard parts easier and prevent software projects from devolving into balls of chaos and complexity. I don't really believe this is possible. Or, it's the sort of thing that gets solved at a "product" level. Reality is complicated. People are complicated. The idea that software can exist without complexity feels sort of absurd to me. That said, to your larger point, I think the goal is basically to eliminate the middle class.

Full original
FA

> So, once again, the old question: If reducing jobs is the only goal, but people are also expected to have jobs to be able to pay for food and housing, what is the end goal here? What is the vision that those companies are trying to realize? Capitalism is reliant on the underclass (the homeless, the below minimum-wage) to add pressure to the broader class of workers in a way that makes them take jobs that they ordinarily wouldn't (Because they may be e.g. physically/emotionally unsafe, unethical, demeaning), for less money than they deserve and for more hours than they should. This is done in order to ensure that the price of work for companies is low, and that they can always draw upon a needy desperate workforce if required. You either comply with company requirements, or you get fired and hope you have enough runway not to starve. This was written about over a hundred years ago and i…

Full original
NE

The goal has nothing to do with you being employed. Your job security is a consequence of the ultimate goal to build AGI. And software development salaries and employment will be affected before getting there. In my opinion, we already past the SWE peak as far as yearly salary. Yes there are super devs working on AI making a lot of dough, but I consider that a particular specialty. On average the salary of a new grad SWE in the US is past its peak if you consider how many new grads can’t get a job.

Full original
CA

You can work with something else if there's no longer any demand for your current skills. If you refuse you should starve.

Full original
Continue on Hacker News

Respect different perspectives. Share concrete experiences.

Sign in to post, reply, repost, and quote.