zlacker

The key is to figure out how to move up the ladder of abstraction. You don't want to be a "coder" in a world where AI can code, but you do want to be a "person who makes software" in a world where making software just got easier.

>>sander+(OP)
Most people who chose the profession don’t want that, though. They like the coding, and dislike managing.

>>layer8+h1
How does "person who makes software" imply "managing"?

I understand that "coding" is the fun part for lots of people, especially younger people. This is me as well, so I'm definitely sympathetic to it, and feel quite a bit of sadness about this.

Lots of people also enjoy woodworking and machining by hand, but that's not how most furniture or machines are made.

If I were independently wealthy, I might well spend some of my time making artisan software, but as a professional and entrepreneur, I'm going to try to use efficient tools for the job.

>>sander+s2
This relates to the analogy that an LLM is like a junior developer that you have to instruct and guide, and whose work you have supervise and review. Working with an LLM is similar to managing people as a tech lead. And once LLM agents get smart enough and reliable enough, the work will be similar to that of a product manager, project leader, CTO, or even CEO.

If you like being an entrepreneur, you’re already different from most professional software developers.

>>layer8+64
I'm aware of that analogy, and thought that might be what you were alluding to, but I don't think it's a good analogy.

I agree with you that most professional software developers don't like being entrepreneurs, but I think that has more to do with disliking the parts of entrepreneurship that don't fit into "person who makes software", like fundraising and marketing.

But I think many - maybe most, but not all - professional software engineers actually do enjoy "making software", generally, and not just "coding", narrowly.

>>sander+Kj
I agree that they enjoy "making software", but typically not if it involves a lot of instructing LLMs with natural language and reviewing their output. Again, this will become very similar to the job of a project or product manager who doesn't do any coding themselves. Developers tend to not like that kind of role.

>>layer8+Mm1
Maybe! But I think this is very debatable, or at least, impermanent.

To me, it is very reminiscent of when I was a wee lad and there was a prevalent view that no real developer would want to make web applications, that was for script kiddies. But it turned out to be a useful kind of software to build, so a lot of people who build software started building web applications.

I also think that lots of developers do naturally enjoy increasingly higher levels of work than "just" writing code, as they progress in their careers. The job of "staff+ engineers" has significant overlap with what product managers do, where the "product" they're thinking about is the technical design of a larger system. Lots of developers really do enjoy this kind of work!