Being "Just a Developer" Isn't Enough Anymore | Hacker News Reader

Being "Just a Developer" Isn't Enough Anymore

saasykit.com

22 pointsboothemoo20 comments

Software Development might be dead, but Software Engineering is alive and well.

Anyone seriously interfacing with AI code generation can tell you that understanding how software is composed and architected is, and will continue to be, a requirement to building anything worthwhile. These systems are impressive but we are a far ways away from "Magical Genie Wishes" as a means of creating software.

And where do people think "Software Engineers" come from?

Do they spring fully formed from Zeus' forehead?

From universities, having taken the degree, and in some countries the engineering oath as well.

Where graduates learn during a course of three to five years, depending on the country, that Software Engineering isn't only coding.

How can you be so sure of that? We moved from completing the next word in a sentence to hey Claude, build me a SaaS awfully quickly. Are you willing to bet your career on a pace slowdown?

If that were the case, why doesn't Anthropic just spin up their own HR software? https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/anthropic/jobs/5023394008

Because it's not their company mission to provide an HR tool. Getting started fast doesn't equate to being done somehow; every piece of software still is a liability that requires ongoing maintenance and continued development.

I don't believe everyone will just suddenly start to replace SaaS tools with agent-built versions of them, because economically, that doesn't make sense: Even when we gloss over all human work still required in collaboration with agents, the tokens alone required to build a sufficiently complex system are more expensive over the long term than buying SaaS seats. So there's that.

Just talking about AI isnt enough to ship your bang average products anymore

It never was for those doing consulting work, as customers always expected more than plain coding.

This was true before.

The famous essay "Don't Call Yourself A Programmer" dates from 2011! I thought it was required reading here on HN.

https://www.kalzumeus.com/2011/10/28/dont-call-yourself-a-pr...

I've done "being not only a developer" for some time. It's okay, even fulfilling but sometimes exhausting. Would have liked to take a break at some cushy, technical only position. Damn, should have done this while still possible...

I agree with some parts, at least.

After my recent layoff, I realized I had become too narrow. I knew one language and one subject matter well, and couldn't quickly switch to something else. I was lucky and found an exact fit within a week - but there's no guarantee that will happen again.

Definitely doesn't hurt to know a few languages, a few subjects well. Even if you're not an expert, you can fake it for a bit while you get the details down.

AWS meant that (a lot of) "developers" were needing "Ops" skills

AI hasn't "forced" domain knowledge to be required at all, it's been there as a requirement for a long time (I had several medical projects turn myself and many other good developers away because we didn't have domain knowledge, which was fair because we needed to have some idea of the subtext in the field)

Being "Just a Developer" was never a thing for anyone above Junior level, AI code generation hasn't changed anything about that.

In fact, AI code generation hasn't changed much at all for anyone with a significant amount of experience (outside of business and management expectations) - its just another tool of varying usefulness.

Just move on to something else already, e.g. designing physical products, getting them manufactured, and selling them. Use AI all along the way instead of fighting it. The longer one stays a developer, the worse the salaries will get. It won't be too long before it becomes a minimum wage job.

I've always been super interested in the business, the product, the design, etc. Just programming was never enough for me. It's more fun to have at least some understanding of the entire system all the way from marketing to database optimization.

My experience is this has always been the case. Although I imagine if there were any just a dev jobs they are at risk!

Everyone is now a developer (Just don't tell them about software maintenance)

AI bubble burst will be a great time to pick up work of this kind. LLM prices skyrocket, needs a real dev.

Indeed. The new (and few) AI Plumbers will command the best rates.

No need to go by some generic rules. Just respond to what's going on around you. Not all companies move the same way in adopting AI. Some do it for PR sake. Highly regulated domains move at snail's space. So wait until you see the change and respond in way that aligns with the change. No hard rules.

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