Item — HN Reader

For me the most awesome thing here is the 100MB file upload function. May sound like nothing, but this is groundbreaking when we've been so far constrained by token limits. This means we don't need to endure an arduous back-and-forth process of giving it tiny pieces of data, code, and increasingly creative prompts. It can now just injest an entire dataset or software project and make swathing changes of all manner. This is going to disrupt everything (and already is..).

I'm left wondering what the role of a software eng is and all I can come up with is a glorified quality analyst. Nothing wrong with that, but it's just such a transformation, and so sudden. I'm excited, scared, and exhausted all at the same time!

1 comments

> Nothing wrong with that

Unless, of course, you want to be a software engineer.

If all there is to my career is checking generated code for correctness, then there is nothing of value in my career anymore.

That's not how it will be, though. At worst, there will still be niches I can fit in.

I could imagine that we will probably be checking generated code for correcteness while integrating larger parts of generated code. And due to the sheer complexity will need an en engineering understanding to make it all work. I’m excited for that, because it means I can do more with my time. But I also understand how that is not everyone’s cup of tea.

> Unless, of course, you want to be a software engineer.

It’s time to adapt to a changing world.

> I could imagine that we will probably be checking generated code for correcteness while integrating larger parts of generated code.

So we're all to become systems integrators? I'm genuinely happy that excites you. Personally, I find the prospect depressing.

> It’s time to adapt to a changing world.

How do you adapt to no longer being able to do what you love to do? Saying "it's time to adapt" doesn't address the fundamental issue here at all. Obviously, we have to adapt. The question is how to do that and, if happiness is no longer on the table, at least be able to maintain some amount of career satisfaction.

If I can't write software, then my career as a dev is over, no?

Interestingly, this is what a lot of coal miners in West Virginia feel, too.

Humans gotta realize that we are all replaceable. What happens to the least of us, happens to us all.

Whatever we do about this AI stuff? We should do it for everything else, too.

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/west-virginia-co...

When I made this comparison I was trashed in the comments. Not at the hyperbole of it (I don't think it is), that they are in poverty now while we are not. That we should have saved money. Which, shocker, not all of us work in California with those salaries... At this point as a SWE my only goal is to try and find IT employment to support loved ones and keep my visa till I get permanent residence. Fuck everything, just survive at this point. I loved programming, if that is ripped from me, then survive is all I want to do. That or jump in front of a train.

Damn, how do people have such a bleak outlook. While I cannot see anything but amazing things ahead for me as a engineer/programmer.

I don't mean to be so dark... it is just I get so worried about the future. It might be age, it might be that i clawed my way to a tiny bit of stability. Things could be great, I actually have seen you in a few threads and you always say the same thing that you love programming because you can focus on global ideas now. That to me sounds fun too. I like both. I am just worried you need less of those people which means more unemployment. For me when I say programming is ripped from me I mean it in all sense of the word.

I've been in this industry for a long time, and have been through a few fundamental shifts, and of course, I have adapted to and valued change throughout. But I have never felt nearly as pessimistic/doubtful about the future of software development as I do now.

Nothing will make me happier than to be wrong about what I see coming.

> Interestingly, this is what a lot of coal miners in West Virginia feel, too.

I doubt there were that many who actually enjoyed digging coal as opposed to just having a relatively well paying job

Feel free to substitute it with print journalists, who over the last few decades have watched their careers vanish and replaced with something quantifiably less valuable to society.

I do not know the answer to your question, since for me programming has become a lot more enjoyable being able to throw outputs of LLM's together and then being the glue in between with my expertise. Coming from my perspective, going back would throw me into a career with prospects which I started to lose passion for. Doing the same thing over and over again, spending weeks on stuff I have already solved many times over in different flavors, frameworks and languages.

I understand that some engineers/developers struggle with this change, but it also seems to be a personal take on ground breaking changes which are shaking up this career path; which are positive for some, and negative for others. Maybe we are on two different part of the spectrum, because I can't wait to have my job reduced to prompting and building even bigger things. IF it was not that way, I would have been close to a career change. No doubt, these changes will introduce new engineering challenges, which will be equally as exciting and in need of an engineering mindset as the previous paradigms have been.

> I understand that some engineers/developers struggle with this change

This isn't an issue of struggling with adapting to change. If it were just a matter of doing my job in a different way, that would be totally fine. This is an issue of seeing the sort of work that I enjoy -- the entire thing that drew me to this career -- evaporate completely.

But this all makes me sound more upset than I actually am. I'm very troubled, but I also only have a decade or two left in my career, so I think it's likely that I'll be able to find niche positions where I can keep doing what I love to do.

I do worry about younger devs who are in the business for similar reasons as me, though.

> How do you adapt to no longer being able to do what you love to do? Saying "it's time to adapt" doesn't address the fundamental issue here at all. Obviously, we have to adapt. The question is how to do that and, if happiness is no longer on the table, at least be able to maintain some amount of career satisfaction.

Forget “love” how are we supposed to adapt when jobs seem to be increasingly specialized requiring ridiculous education costs and companies don’t want to train people anymore.

You'll get the same answer the Luddites did over a century ago: crickets

learn to co....oh

D'oh. That one really didn't age well, did it?