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Hear hear. I didn't spend half my life getting an education, competing in the corporate crab bucket, retraining and upskilling just to turn into a robot babysitter.

Then continue to write code as a hobby, noone is going to take that away from you. But if you want someone to pay you for hand setting code the way you always have then .. well you might find that harder and harder as time goes on.

Easy to say if you either:

(1) already have enough money to survive without working, or

(2) don't realize how hard of a life it would be to "flip burgers" to make a living in 2026.

We live very good lives as software developers. Don't be a fool and think you could just "flip burgers" and be fine.

Ah, I actually did flip burgers. So I know.

I also did dry cleaning, cleaning service, deli, delivery guy, etc.

Yup I now have enough money to survive without working.

But I also am very low maintenance, thanks to my early life being raised in harsh conditions.

I am not scared to go back flipping burgers again.

"I am not scared to go back flipping burgers again."

You should be - in all likelihood you'd have to work 3 burger-flipping jobs to make enough money to pay rent and buy food. Inflation and housing issues have hit a lot harder than most people who make 6-figure incomes realize. It's really tough out there right now. I am very, very grateful for the income I have and don't take it for granted.

"Yup I now have enough money to survive without working" Your opinion is borderline irrelevant then.

Indeed, after all I am just replaceable dime a dozen software engineer like I said above.

that part doesn't matter

it's the part where you don't have to work that matters

I appreciate this perspective. I'm actually hoping LLM hype will help to pop the bubble of tech salaries, make the profession roughly as profitable as going into teaching, so maybe the gold diggers will clear out and go play the stock market or something, rest of us can stick around and build things. Maybe software quality will even improve as a result? Would be nice...

Man, come on - what planet are you from, seriously? I got into this business because I enjoy programming, but I also wanted to for once in my life make a decent living and be able to save something. I have kids I'd like to send to college. I'd like to be able to retire someday. I have aging parents that need expensive care. This is one of the few professions that you can upskill into without years of expensive degrees.

People need to make money to survive, now more than ever. It seems incredibly selfish to wish for that to disappear just so you can "purify" the profession.

> People need to make money to survive

I very much agree. A million dollar tech salary isn't that though.

I hear you but I feel like you (and really others like you, in mass) should not be so passive about your replacement. For most programmers, simply flipping burgers for money to enjoy programming a few hours a week is not going to work. Making a living is a thing. If you are reduced to having to flip burgers that means the economy will gave collapsed and there won’t be any magic Elon UBI money to save us.

We will have bigger problems when that happens. I am not worried.

I mean, the point is to not be passive and push against those bigger problems happening but ok.

I simply will not spend my life begging and coaxing a machine to output working code. If that is what becomes of this profession, I will just do something else :)

If I wanted to do that, I'd just move into engineering management and work with something less temperamental and predictable - humans.

I'd at least be more likely to get a boost in impact and ability to affect decision making, maybe.

Until you realize you're just begging and coaxing a human to better beg and coax a machine to output working code - when you could just beg and coax the machine yourself.

At least I'd be the one interfacing with a human instead of a machine :P

It would definitely be the profession if we stopped developing things today. Think about the idea of coding agents 2 years ago, I personally found them very unrealistic and am now coding exclusively with them despite them being either a neutral or net negative to my development time simply because I see the writing on the wall that in 6 mos to a year they will probably be a huge net positive and in 2-3 years the dismissive attitude towards adoption will start to look kind of silly (no offense). To me we are _just_ at the inflection point where using and not using coding agents are both totally sensible decisions.

having fun isn't tied to employment unless you are self-employed even then what's fun should not be the driving force

"get a job doing something you enjoy and you'll never work a day in your life"

or something like that

Why? It is a matter of values. Fun can be a driving force just like money and stability is. It is simply a matter of your values (and your sacrifices).

Like I said, I am just a generic replaceable dime a dozen programmer dude.

you dont get paid to have fun but to produce as a laborer

a job isn't supposed to be fun its nice when it is but it shouldn't be what drives decisions

You mean it shouldn't be the driving force of your employer to make decision. Yes I agree 10000%

I meant it can be your (not necessarily your employer) driving decision in life.

Of course, you need to suffer. That's about having tradeoffs.

almost all employers are going to expect you to use AI and produce more with it

you can definitely choose not to participate and give the opportunity someone who are happy to use AI and still have fun with it.

Indeed, please find others to do it, not me.

most organizations have awful leadership, sure

but that doesn't mean you can't (or shouldn't) work around it

have you tried telling your boss you won't use the AI anymore while the rest of the team uses it ?

how do you imagine such conversation to play out im curious

what I've done is avoid the sort of boss who would mandate AI use

in a past job I did tell a boss that I wasn't going to be doing the whole tickets/estimates/schedule tetris thing, and that actually worked out... because the leaders I worked with understood the value of being flexible and trusting their lead engineers

i think you angered the hustle bros

were these bots? so strange all green nicks

nah just privileged dudes who think the whole world gets to pick and choose how to earn a living

That sounds miserable to me :(

you work on somebody's dime, its no longer your choice

it's your choice whose dime you work on. they can compete for your work by making it fun for you.

sure unemployment is also a choice

fun work > tedious work > unemployment

not sure why so many people feel like factoring fun into what job you want to take is so unthinkable, or that it's just a false dichotomy between the ideal job and unemployment

you are describing the ideal which is not a reality for many many people as it is not common

it's a trade-off; you need a job but you typically interview at several places, collect offers, and weigh them according to various criteria. all the pro-fun posters are saying is that "enjoy the job" is a very highly ranked criterion for us.

this is known as privilege

it's definitely a privilege to be able to find a fun job! but note that I'm not saying that everyone should hold out until they find one, I'm pushing back against the dour people who are convinced in their heart of hearts that "it's a job, it's not supposed to be fun" and that you are being an idiot for thinking it's even possible to find a job you really enjoy.

It's my life, it's my choice.