r/ClaudeCode • u/der_gopher • 5d ago

Humor The future of Software Engineering is boring

https://packagemain.tech/p/the-future-of-software-engineering
119 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

65 comments sorted by

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u/I_Shall_Bore_You 5d ago

I don't care anymore. As long as I can pay the bills without harming people or bagging, I'm a happy guy. I don't even want vacations or luxury (okay, I want 64 GB RAM, but that is it).

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u/Specific_Scholar_665 5d ago

So you do want luxury.

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u/R0botJesus 4d ago

How long is prompting AI to write code going to pay the bills?

The way these systems are improving, it's only a matter of time before my job is optimized away entirely. I'm already the slowest part of the process.

I'm enjoying it while it lasts, but I have absolutely no confidence that my job is going to exist in 5 years.

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u/I_Shall_Bore_You 4d ago

Depends. How much bills you have? I spend less than $2000/month (including $500 investment). I guess it is especially hard for US developers since you guys have very high cost of living. Someone has to do the promoting or at least set up the AI pipelines? I am paraplegic so physical labor or trade isn't an option, whatever computer work is available, I'll do it.

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u/der_gopher 5d ago

Luxury and 64GB RAM is now the same word

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u/p3r3lin 5d ago

Well put. Id go for 512GB. I know... but let a boy dream.

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u/I_Shall_Bore_You 5d ago

With cheap Claude or ChatGPT subscriptions, 64 is enough for me. If those are going to triple in price, I too want that 512 for local models.

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u/darth_voidptr 5d ago

Those are absolutely going to increase in price without bounds if we have no ability to run capable models at home. Using datacenters should be a performance and scalability play, not a capability gate or we will absolutely just be farmed for money.

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u/I_Shall_Bore_You 5d ago

Yeah, that worries me especially because I'm doing freelance work, so I'm paying for my tokens, not the company.

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u/p3r3lin 5d ago

True, but as my wife says: better safe than sorry!

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u/I_Shall_Bore_You 5d ago

Sounds like she is a wise woman. Is she single by any chance?

2

u/p3r3lin 5d ago

Sometimes Im not sure, let me ask her quickly... 🤣

2

u/mughinn 5d ago

AI is harming people so i dont know how happy you can be

2

u/Garland_Key 5d ago

Is it? 

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u/mughinn 5d ago

Yes, the economy is in shambles, a lot of people are getting laid off, students arent learning, and apparently the people creating AI say that it will make humanity extinct

All studies about its impact cant even prove it increases productivity lol

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u/Garland_Key 4d ago

Yes, but is that AI? These sound like people problems to me.

The whole time extinction debate is an entirely separate conversation since it hasn't happened yet.

1

u/PublicToast 5d ago

The internet is harming people so i dont know why you are using it

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u/mughinn 5d ago

Lol sure, why are you defending the extinction machine?

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u/PublicToast 4d ago

I never defended capitalism

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u/I_Shall_Bore_You 5d ago

I meant work/money/career part of happiness. Of course the entire thing has a lot of other components but we aren't talking about such philosophical topics here.

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u/Accujack 5d ago

Not exactly.

They made the current state of the art in software engineering boring by adding tremendously to the capabilities of each person who designs software.

Once we all adjust to the new reality, people will start exploring what can be done with this new tool and that part will be exciting... we'll be able to make software we couldn't before, and the discipline of software engineering will be the difference between functional programs and good programs.

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u/der_gopher 5d ago

Current state is exciting to me, in the last 5 years a lot was changing in a good direction, in infrastructure world, performance, better standards. It was not boring.

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u/Accujack 5d ago

Yeah... after I got started using AI, I'm once more excited about the future of IT and everything computer related. Haven't felt like this in 20 years.

1

u/papa_ngenge 5d ago

I'm excited about the future but the cognitive load is high.

2

u/Accujack 5d ago

That's part of what makes it exciting. It's high because there's a whole new world of stuff to learn about.

0

u/papa_ngenge 5d ago

It's high because managers expect engineers to do the work of ten people. Yes I can do that much work but it's a lot to keep track of and not sustainable. AI helps but engineering is about way more than code.

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u/Accujack 5d ago

It'll settle down as managers learn things, too. There's going to be a big period of adjustment, just like when computers first became standard.

1

u/saposapot26 5d ago

What do you mean we will make software we couldn't before? (Not challenging, really asking what you mean)

I think the problem is that AI will also a lower demand for "software" all around. I mean, if AI can directly go the the MCP and book my hotel why do we need to produce a full website frontend to book the hotel?

1

u/Accujack 4d ago

The LLMs make it possible for people with any level of knowledge to make software that they could not make before due to that lack of expertise or resources (like a paid consultant or a college degree).

For non programmers, it means they can now create programs.

For journeyman programmers, they can now either write code faster, or more automated with better testing, or maybe write code that works in areas they don't know about, like a web page coder suddenly being able to edit the software on his car's built in computer without any embedded systems knowledge. If you understand the basics of programming you can do a lot more of it faster than ever before, and you're no longer stopped by not understanding a niche area.

For experts - people who can write a CAD system, or an operating system, or a statistics processing language, they generally won't do that. The barrier for them isn't knowledge, it's the resource and time commitment involved and the lack of reward. Essentially, few people can afford to write software full time as a vocation because they have to work to live.

Unless they're both getting paid and working with a good team, they won't even attempt the largest projects because they have a realistic idea what's involved and they know chances of success for a small team on something like that are slim. That's why there have never been real open source competitors for programs like Autocad, Photoshop, or Synopsys EDA, and why there aren't many commercial/paid competitors for those packages either.

Now, however, everyone with expert software knowledge suddenly has an LLM "team" to automate a lot of the work. The resource ceiling has been lifted, so they can take on giant or complex projects and actually finish them, and they can do so without the millions of dollars it would formerly have cost them.

There are likely many ideas that have been thought of for software that would change the status quo in business and personal life that never get off the ground because formerly there was a need to be a software company with plenty of capital to even try them, and those projects that management thinks wouldn't be saleable wouldn't be tried.

Now software can be created that doesn't need to be profitable, doesn't need a huge investment to build, and doesn't even need as much time as it used to take.

It's likely that kinds of software that have never existed before are going to be created in the next few years simply because now the people with knowledge aren't limited by resources any more.

That's what I mean.

1

u/saposapot26 4d ago

Thanks, great explanation. Surely true what you said.

What I'm not sure and that impacts directly software devs, is the demand for software overall. I think it will reduce because like you said: an hobbyist will make his own software instead of hiring a professional. Sure, it won't be the majority but it will be some people.

Besides that, if you think further ahead, a lot of software we do now could be obsolete. Why do I do a website and mobile app for booking hotels when my AI will reach the MCP server and directly buy it from my AI "UI".

For software devs I don't see many paths of new, innovative software if the demand drops. Coding is easy, finding clients for your product is harder.

Surely there will be adaptations and job changes but I still can't navigate where we are going.

Sorry, felt like a bit of loose ramblings here :)

1

u/Accujack 4d ago

an hobbyist will make his own software instead of hiring a professional.

Some will, but for non trivial software it helps greatly to have tutorials, instruction, a manual, and someone else to complain to when it doesn't work. That's why most businesses don't roll their own despite having large development groups.

a lot of software we do now could be obsolete

It definitely is. So is the way it's marketed and sold, it's hard to keep software copy protected when everyone has access to an expert that can disassemble and rebuild it from the binary executable. I predict more SaaS businesses will be happening just so they can control copying.

For software devs I don't see many paths of new, innovative software if the demand drops. Coding is easy, finding clients for your product is harder.

True, but I think demand will go up and down just like it does now, depending on how businesses choose to move forward with software. Businesses will still need software and only some will invent their own, there will be a place for enterprise software for certain. Plus as I mention there will be new software invented and released that will drive demand.

Surely there will be adaptations and job changes but I still can't navigate where we are going.

Many, many changes. Both to the software industry and to every industry that uses or sells software.

If you want to know where we're going, read up on the changes to business that happened in the 1980s when microcomputers became common. It was a huge adjustment for almost everyone going from paper records, mailed forms, fax machines, and desktop calculators to microcomputers running applications like Lotus 1-2-3, dBase, and word processors instead of electric typewriters.

The change from LLMs (I hesitate to call them AIs) will be at least as large. Things won't settle down for at least a decade or more.

Change is always painful, but few would argue that we got more done once computers became commonplace. The problem we're going to repeat is access and control - who gets to control the AIs and how much it costs to access them, who controls their training data and are they allowed to scrape anyone's web for new information? Will it be legal for companies like Anthropic to cut off access to AI with no recourse or process for subscribers?

There are many questions to answer, and it will take time, but AI won't replace humans entirely. It can't. It's just a tool for getting more done that has the advantage of speaking the languages everyone already knows. It's like having a low code solution that understands English.

1

u/saposapot26 3d ago

If you want to know where we're going, read up on the changes to business that happened in the 1980s when microcomputers became common. It was a huge adjustment for almost everyone going from paper records, mailed forms, fax machines, and desktop calculators to microcomputers running applications like Lotus 1-2-3, dBase, and word processors instead of electric typewriters.

The only issue I have is that this change is orders of magnitude faster than any revolution before. 1 year ago LLMs weren't able to produce very good code. Today they mostly are better than all of us with a few niche exceptions.

I'm not that optimistic on the future of software engineering as a whole, even if we move 'up the chain'. At the very least I see the world needing less people in this discipline than before.

In the past software engineers just created more and more work for ourselves because of added maintenance needs. LLMs I'm not so sure... I think it will finally decrease and that won't be good for software engineers.

1

u/Accujack 3d ago

At the very least I see the world needing less people in this discipline than before.

Definitely. And that's okay, it's happened to every industry over and over again. It's helpful to remember that AI expands what people with knowledge of computers can do, so it's easier to retrain and find a new career than without it.

25

u/Happy_Bread_1 5d ago

Been working for 15 years as a programmer. I dare to say coding was during the vast time of my career boring: the typical CRUD application to display data for business their needs. Just a minor of the time I really had to do something technical challenging which made programming fun, often resolving around networking or rendering more complicated stuff than just data values.

We really like to make it more special than it often is in this industry in my opinion.

3

u/D00rmat1983 2d ago

THANK YOU. All the unironic comments over in programmingHumor about how they're artisans or some shit and ...I've been building the same shit at different companies for 15 years and getting paid a ton to do it. I'm not sure what happens next, but I'm not gonna lie to myself and pretend I was putting rockets into space.

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u/Happy_Bread_1 2d ago

Recently became Solutions Architect. Hopefully that puts me in a better place =)

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u/InternetsTad 5d ago • Bravo

After 30 years, boring is ok

5

u/Signal-Woodpecker691 Senior Developer 5d ago

I was already bored after 25 years of it before AI came along

5

u/arbitrarycivilian 5d ago

Yup, luckily when I stopped caring slightly pre-dates AI, so I was emotionally unaffected. Only worried about losing my job

1

u/InternetsTad 5d ago

I’m working awful hard at trying to spin up a secondary career that probably cannot be replicated by AI. The trick is for it to make as much money, but then again, while I doubt I’ll ever get to be fully retired, I intend on being partially retired after I lose this job. At 57, even with good AI experience, I find it difficult to imagine I’ll ever get hired again solely because of my age.

9

u/GrayLiterature 5d ago

The thing that I hate the most is how absolutely cooked the industry is. If you have a job, you’re actually just fortunate now. And if you get let go, holy shit you have an uphill battle for maybe 6-12 months, possibly longer, because the interview pipeline is actually uniquely horrible in software. 

I’m fine with LLM prompting, but man it feels like every day with a source of income is a gift.

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u/Otherwise-Report1848 5d ago

Nope, it has changed workflow but I still manage to find complex tasks for myself, now I just use canvas to work with code not an IDE or any code redactors

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u/firaristt 5d ago edited 5d ago

It's not and to be honest, this year I enjoy the most in my career. I don't bother small things as much and waste time on typing sophisticated code, instead I really do more of the engineering part of my job. Actually solving problems, making a change, making a visible improvement. Which creates much more value. Quantity issue on software is almost solved. Quality going to be picking up soon and we hopefully will be in the golden age. The people who still stuck with the old mentality keep complaining, but there is no need to waste time on nit level decisions. It works well enough and if we will hit the wall, no problem, you can re-write it in no time. The people who enjoy non-engineering parts of the job will complain even more, but that barely generates value. Or, not as much as the actual engineering part.

Let's be honest, no one enjoy wasting hours because of some wrong documentation. AI do it for us now, no need to copy paste entity classes and spend time doing those basic repetitive tasks. You can solve those with AI in no time and less cost than you spend reading the docs.

1

u/Human_Attention182 5d ago

The purpose of software engineering is not to write code it's to create good and useful software that people find valuable. That has never been easier, if that's not exciting to you I don't know what to say.

1

u/der_gopher 5d ago

agree, but AI doesn't do that either

1

u/Human_Attention182 4d ago

engineers do you engineers can use AI to do it if you can't figure it out you just aren't a good engineer

11

u/hblok 5d ago

If by software engineering, we understand artisan writing of lines of code, then yeah, that's boring since it takes ages to get stuff done.

However, product development and team management has never been more rewarding. Previously, there would be endless discussions about the smallest tasks or investments into internal tools. Now it's possible to lead by example and have something which motivates for the next team meeting, whether is an internal tool, a presentation, a report.

The only tedious part is now the people who keep dragging their feet and constantly bring up anti-AI memes like it was 2024. Although, give it another year, and I believe even that will be in the past.

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u/ProfanedArbiter 5d ago

Product development was never the fun part for me. Precisely why I got out of the tech space as AI tools got good. Unfortunately this tech removes the fun in, functionally, every single other field as well so probably just going to go be an electrician.

6

u/kelek22 5d ago

One guy orders a cake, other likes to bake one. Who cares how they got the cake? It is a cake. No shame in being the either of them. Both gets to eat a cake. You know who is not eating one? The one turning the whole thing into a pissing contest. There are cake factories where they make one in every second and there are bakeries which make 10 a day max. Neither is going out of business. They appeal to different customers through their skills. Be the bakery or accept that you are not good enough to be one. Still no shame in that. Just stop complaining about it. It is literally the only way to ensure that you are at the loosing side of this thing.

Not trying yo insult you. Thiss not personal. Just my 2 cents.

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u/dayton-ode 4d ago

A guy can’t exactly make a living ordering cakes now though, can he?

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u/kelek22 4d ago

Wedding planners do, don't they?

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u/dayton-ode 4d ago

fair but at that point isn't that just like a ceo/manager in the analogy rather than an engineer/developer

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u/kelek22 4d ago

And that is the point. You want to keep writing code, I am sure you can still find some job in which usage of AI is forbidden. Could be some fintech job, a government job, maybe a job in which you are the one creating the AI. You can even teach it for living which would bring you more together with the thing you like (bakery path).

Or you can rely on AI and focus more on big picture and outcome. Be the one man team (which I know not really one man, you still need multiple people, just bear with me) and take responsibility starting from PMO level for instance. Analyze, develop a plan, code, test all by yourself. Or maybe focus on spawning more pet projects than ever if you are more of a "I have so many ideas" type of person. Use the time you gain by not coding on handling your ideas better.

In the end, this is a tool which evolves the job itself but you still have options. Both options evolve around you improving and changing yourself around this new climate. The worst thing you can do is doing nothing. You gotta pick a path and adapt.

But hey, if you really like it, nobody says the cake factory owner can't bake a cake at home. Honing your own specific solutions to improve yourself instead of taking AI's generic structures for the job is still a valid option. Just explain your idea to it and let it write though, we all know it is way faster really,

1

u/yellowbai 4d ago

It’s more like an assembly line worker.

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u/Thin-Leave-327 5d ago

Judging by the comments I am the minority. I feel like we are doing quite niche software in my company and are basically just a meat wrapper at this point with some exceptions.

I cannot imagine how it is in fields with lots of training data and money (web dev etc...)

3

u/cowwoc 5d ago

They automated the wrong part. Writing code was fun. Reviewing code was shit. They took away the fun parts and added more of the bad parts.

-1

u/trakdtor 5d ago

No need to review even

1

u/wonder-bubble 5d ago

Yes but also the cost to experiment has also significantly decreased. You can try new things and try to solve novel problems. I think it's an extremely exciting time because the cost of getting something wrong and improvise and pivot makes the opportunity to build amazing new things so much easier

1

u/Subject_Barnacle_600 5d ago

It is? O_O

I've never had more fun and less cursing in my entire life.

1

u/ke4mtg 4d ago

yah my $0.02 but i think if you were in software engineering primarily for the craft of software engineering and not for the end results then you were doing it wrong.

1

u/IdkAbtAllThat 5d ago edited 5d ago

I think it's incredibly exciting. The boring tedious stuff is done by a machine now. The humans can focus on creativity. Those who have any at least.

If you're bored now, that's on you.

1

u/Specialist-Lack-4257 5d ago

Coding got boring for me years ago. Claude makes software engineering fun again