Software engineers with low self-esteem who built their entire identity as mechanical cognitive workers are having an identity crisis and spreading FUD.
Currently, LLMs are nothing more than amplification tools that require significant steering. If you think your job is mainly to take input from POs or managers, translate it into if/else statements and loops, and review PRs, then you never really understood your role. Software engineering—for those who went to university and studied it—is fundamentally about complexity management and cognitive automation. People in the field, or at least those with some math background who studied software engineering properly, understand that it's all about managing complexity; current tools are nowhere near replacing a software engineer. What they call "taste" is imagination, creativity, embodiment, a more intuitive understanding of context, and yes, superior intelligence compared to current AI. However, AI and LLMs are excellent at mechanical work and mimicking human intelligence, so use them for what they are, and stop whining.
Going forward, the world is ever-growing in complexity, and automation will become widespread everywhere. LLMs just unlocked another level. So basically, cognitive work will be automated—perhaps up to 90%—until the next breakthrough (if ever). You can sit and cry, or you can learn the tools and help shape the future.
Software engineers can automate the entire economy now, including the executives, yet they just sit there whining and crying. This is a self-esteem, confidence, and identity issue more than anything else.
It doesn't matter to your boss. He will still fire you and replace you with a slop machine. Then you will not be able to get a job again and you will have low self-esteem.
That is limited thinking. People are replacing their bosses, and your boss will be bossing what exactly? Right now LLMs cant' replace the entire spectrum of human intelligence. But if your entire work is just translating your boss ask to for-loops & if-statements, the I guess yes, I would be worried.
If you really think those layoffs are due to AI, then you haven't worked in corporations long enough. If companies are not hiring, and are firing, then what do we need middle managers for? In fact, if an engineer is really smart and masters the tools, what do you need POs, managers, executives, and even sales for? If you stretch things to the max, those who master the tools are positioned to automate everyone aside from the capitalist, as they are protected legally
>You can sit and cry, or you can learn the tools and help shape the future.
What exactly are you helping shape? The volume of your employers bank account?
Chinese Gen Zers are starting companies before graduating, people are generating music and starting their own studios, others are improving models and building harnesses, and the rest are on a mission to automate the entire knowledge economy—from healthcare to governance.
Regarding your employer's bank account: if that is all you were doing before, then that is all you will be doing after. You are just complaining about capitalism now. The irony, is that the means of production is now in the hands of millions. Those who are crying are those who paid their mortgages with for loops..well, I think they will continue doing so, with less hubris that's all. LLMs are nowhere near replacing full engineer.
So get a grip fellow engineers.
>Chinese Gen Zers are starting companies before graduating, people are generating music and starting their own studios
Both of these have been happening before the advent of LLMs
>The irony, is that the means of production is now in the hands of millions
The "means of production" means jack shit unless you have the capital to scale up rapidly
>Those who are crying are those who paid their mortgages with for loops..well, I think they will continue doing so, with less hubris that's all.
Why is it hubris to give a damn about you spend 40 hours a week doing, or to lament change when it works against your enjoyment of those 40 hours a week. God forbid people value their time in any way that isn't monetary.
> Both of these have been happening before the advent of LLMs
I'm not sure about that. I read they are making better use of AI to accelerate building their businesses. Apparently, in China, people were not looking to work in corporations anyway, so they saw AI as a means to escape them.
> The "means of production" means jack shit unless you have the capital to scale up rapidly
There are people topping music charts without even having a brand; they just produce good music. There are people automating entire marketing pipelines to minimize capital expenditure, and there are people building niches for small crowds and making a good living out of it. Not everything needs scaling.
> Why is it hubris to give a damn about you spend 40 hours a week doing, or to lament change when it works against your enjoyment of those 40 hours a week. God forbid people value their time in any way that isn't monetary.
If you enjoy writing loops and if/else statements, you can still do it, but the market won't pay you when there is a tool that does it faster. That is the nature of the domain. Have you ever thought about the jobs that software engineers automated? What do you think those people did? They adapted, learned the tools, and moved on. This is the first time we are seeing automation at this scale in software engineering, and the reaction of software engineers is exactly the same as those in other fields.
Adapt.
Regarding hubris, I've been in this field for 20 years, and there are people in it who are just intolerable, frankly. They memorize every Vim command, refuse to use any other tools, and treat everyone else as less intelligent simply because they can write code... those people are getting humbled hard right now.