526 karma · joined July 19, 2025
Exactly! So the nature of what we do might change; but, solving problems with computers will always be the thing. And the most capable people of doing that will be those we call programmers - what does it mean exactly, the nature of exact activities they perform will continue to change (as it arguably always have been), but there always be somebody who is significantly more adept at solving problems and create solutions using software - that somebody we will continue to call a computer programmer/software developer.
It certainly speed up some things, slows down others; for learning - a great resource! For generating code I'm on the fence, still experimenting; for now, I write some code manually, some with Claude, working on the hybrid setup. My intuition tells my that a flexible use of this tool will prove to be the most optimal - writing some code manually, some with LLms, depending on both the task and the programmer knowledge, experience and skills.
Even then, smart people will care about dissecting ideas, explore new concepts and broaden their understanding - and for most of it, Text Is King.
There also is an interesting paradox in experience and motivation; often the most experienced and best people on paper are unfortunately the least motivated, least hungry - burn out and boredom do their part.
There are lots of technologies that have been 99% done for decades; it might be the same here.
Good take though.
I don't know whether we have figured out the best models here just yet; the results are mixed
And yes, very often writing a prompt + verifying results and possible modifying them and/or following-up takes longer than just writing code from scratch, manually ;)
I would argue that:
- you cannot develop these skills without doing lots of development with minimal to no AI assistance
- this skills will atrophy, once you use AI too much and too often
I personally err on the side of using AI/LLMS rather too little than too much, to retain and further develop my core skills - time will tell which cohort made the right decision :)
If the code meets set standards and the author understands it all - why does it matter whether it was written by a human or machine?
Does it then really speeds us up and generally makes things better?
Is AI winter coming?
"The dream of the widespread, ubiquitous internet came true, and there were very few fatalities. Some businesses died, but it was more glacial than volcanic in time scale. When ubiquitous online services became commonplace it just felt mundane. It didn’t feel forced. It was the opposite of the dot com boom just five years later: the internet is here and we’re here to build a solid business within it in contrast with we should put this solid business on the internet somehow, because it’s coming."
Yes. And it continues on.