Posted on 02/22/2025 8:52:42 PM PST by SeekAndFind
AI doesn’t mean there won’t be coders, but there will be the need for a lot fewer of them.
The job will change from writing code to correcting the code that is written.
I did one of these Java certification courses in 2002 after the year 2000 bubble ended for my COBOL. I helped code the AT&T and then Bell Atlantic mobile phone software for resellers, billing, cash app with about 200 other programmers. GE aero, and several MRP-II installations. Never got a Java job but became a manager in charge of $8B payments a year. Along with pallets of paper EOB and SOR statements, 835 and EFT generation. I did code a huge Java app that would convert reports into databases.
Any idiot can write code.
I design systems and code is just a part
of that system.
Systems are what run our industry.
Just for grins I’m fluent in about 10
computer languages,
“C” and assembly are my favorites.
Bingo. This has already started and it doesn't look good. A lot of companies paid underskilled programmers whose product works poorly and doesn't integrate well.
THe only code they’re going to write after 18 weeks is garbage. Employers are smarter than this.
In the latter half of the 1990s, AM talk radio stations were constantly airing ads for "Become a Certified Microsoft Windows Technician!"
The ads were selling six-month classes in MS Windows certification. Those six months were touted as a path to a bright, lucrative future.
I don't know if that was the case, as I never took the bait.
All technology job recruiters in the USA are DOT Indians. And they cant believe how stupid Americans are in letting them do that.
Are they saving money overall?
If AI writes $10 billion worth of code for free, but they spend $8 billion correcting it, they are ahead by $2 billion.
This will probably improve over time, where AI will learn to write correctly the first time and for free.
In fact, I would honestly advise kids today that, unless they're intention is to be a doctor or lawyer or something like that, look at the trades. Software and technology are ever evolving, and AI is upending the entire technology industry at the moment. But carpenters, plumbers, electricians, welders, mechanics, etc. Those will always be with us, and many of them pay exceptionally well.
For instance, one of my good friends is a welder. He graduated high school and went straight to the trade. Been doing it for 20 years, and he makes as much salary as I do. And he loves the work.
Mind, I'm not saying ditch coding entirely. If you're going to take it up, do it as a passion. And if you want to have some real fun with it, go pick up an older retro computer like a Commodore 64 and learn to code that thing. There's folks out there doing some truly mind-blowing things with older machines like that.
And competent software developers already must be much smarter people than the average for the population. The "average guy" (or girl) simply cannot do this kind of work, no matter how they are trained.
Note that I do not assert that smarter people are wiser people or have any better morals than average people. They aren't and they don't.
If AI is even capable of real software development, the common use of such tools will aggravate the discrepancy between the number of smart people required and the number that exist in a population.
As AI becomes more intelligent and capable, the very idea of software will change. AI is able to code new games on the fly as you tell it what you want. It will soon (2 years max)do that for any kind software you need or can imagine. No future for software engineers, but no future for software companies, either. No future with AI for almost any jobs. Only few jobs are more or less AI proof. One “safe” category is elected politicians and another is traditional church minister. AI will otherwise take our jobs in just a few years, hard as it is to accept.
It is only the early, relatively primitive AI that will make coding mistakes. That will change fast, is changing already.
You are right about not recommending a career in in software engineering to anyone, but sorry to say, starting a STEM major is also a mistake now. If some is going to graduate in a year or less, they MIGHT get a short term job, but past that the market for inexperience new engineers in any field is going to shrink rapidly starting last half of this year. Experienced, top people will be the last to go, but that too will happen. It is sad, but it what is going to happen if the new AI like ChatGPT-4.5 and 5.0 and similar are released this year. Everything is about to change in new and shocking ways.
If you like to code, code. Find something legal and moral that you like. Learn and practice.
Logical, but not true. The problem is that as AI gets smarter, it is able to bridge the gap to humans better and better, so while you are right in sense (if AI were not to improve) you are wrong in reality. Also, a few really smart people using AI can now accomplish much, much more was even conceivable in the past. And it only gets worse (quickly) as we go on.
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