Don’t confuse this post with the awesome and timeless Programming Sucks, which you should most definitely read. But like that post, mine also makes the point: you don’t want to be a programmer. I will leave the biggest reason for later, and it is a very big reason.
I’ve been programming a long, long time. When I got into programming it was fun, I like coding. But as every year went by being a programmer meant a little less about writing code and a little more about working with other people’s software and code — which is not fun at all. The fun part of coding is the creating part, but every day I get to do less of that. It’s probably why I started blogging and working on software projects at home, so I could still be creative.
And let’s face it, programming is just not fun for most people. Do you really want to be chained to a computer all day? It used to pay well, and a few places still do, but the average programmer does not make that much anymore. Of course the reason until now has been open-source software, which greatly degrades the value of programmers. Open source means we need less code, and needing less code means we need fewer programmers (and thus we get paid less). Oh before I forget to mention one little detail: programmers are famous for being arrogant dicks who think they are smarter (and more special) than they actually are. Some are nice, but others you’re gonna wish you could smack.
But now it gets much, much worse. Check out this code Claude.AI wrote for me. It is very complex and hard to get just right, but Claude got it right the first try.
AI has only become wildly available recently and will only get better. AI will absolutely decimate programming jobs. We will need much fewer programmers and they will get paid much less. Soon anyone will be able to build complex software systems with minimal training. NVIDIA is already claiming eventually we won’t need programmers AT ALL. I don’t necessarily believe NVIDIA but I do believe a terrible winter in the field of programming is coming.
Here is a list of the things AI can do extremely well right now, just of the top of my head:
- write complex software
- make one programmer as productive as two or three programmers
- make our shitty documentation much more accessible — AI can explain almost anything better than 99% of people
- summarize bloated emails into something actually useful and readable
- make system administration much easier and more reliable
- help trouble shoot problems of all types
- create images, create marketing, create movies
- perform all customer service functions
- manage people
AI perfect? No. Better than most people at most things software related? Absolutely.
As if the picture was not bleak enough, AI will accelerate the trend of managers expecting shorter and shorter development times. Content on the Internet, open source and frameworks have contributed to shorter and shorter schedules. AI will cause schedules to become ridiculous.
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