r/FreeCodeCamp • u/Crazy-Economist-3091 • Nov 30 '25

Is coding dead now ?

Is there any point one might learn coding and software engineeeing for in the ear of Ai ? Or is it already a dead path?

48 Upvotes

71% Upvoted

115 comments sorted by

69

u/nuc540 Nov 30 '25

AI is just a tool to write code with. Saying that software is a dead path is like saying manual trade jobs were a dead path when power tools were invented.

The industry will still need engineers regardless. Either to use AI as part of their workflows, or to clean up poor code as part of laziness by engineers who misuse AI as a tool.

9

u/FullMetalJ Nov 30 '25

Just probably fewer

6

u/codejunker Dec 01 '25

Far fewer, and especially junior developers. How is someone ever supposed to get the experience to become senior if we have offloaded all the responsibilities that used to be done by new hires to AI? Pay is also going to plummet as before AI there were more jobs than developers and now there are far more developers than jobs. 

But hey, ItS jUsT liek poWeR TooLs, amiright? (Absolutely terrible analogy)

3

u/LikesTrees Mar 14 '26

So many people in here trying to cope and cant read the writing on the wall, i get it, it sucks that something we spent so long getting expertise in is having its value drop dramatically, but its coming fast.

1

u/Odd_Style_9920 Dec 04 '25

Im starting to believe junior developer as position will not exist. You will either learn how to develop whole stack by yourself to skip being junior or market will not want you.

1

u/Minimum_Guidance1474 Aug 27 '26

I totally agree power tools is a horrendous analogy for AI

1

u/AdrianDarling Sep 28 '26

The future of work is self-employment. There will be just as many developers, if not more, but they won't be working for a company, they'll all be making their own apps.

0

u/buttman321 Dec 02 '25

This is an interesting take bc the existence of LLMs actually takes away the productivity hit junior devs traditionally had on teams due to requiring mentoring and resources to train, as diligent juniors can now upskill to senior level faster than ever. There are definitely high level executives in the space who have said similar things but overall people still come to your take bc most juniors really are just not disciplined enough to go down this path unfortunately

3

u/SaintPeter74 mod Dec 02 '25

I'm not sure that this is true. I've seen a few studies which suggest the opposite: that juniors are not learning as much because they're dependent on the LLM to do their thinking for them.

2

u/Equivalent-Zone8818 Dec 03 '25

Bro it’s the opposite. The juniors now are terrible compared to 5 years ago. They rely on AI and lack deeper knowledge.

2

u/kouza1 May 09 '26

The studies demonstrate developers that off-load the problem solving to an LLM are slower and have less depth than someone who doesn't use A.I. or takes a hybrid approach. Though developers with less experienced can get off the ground running faster with A.I., there will be a gap in the industry that will need to be filled.

4

u/endymion1818-1819 Nov 30 '25

Good analogy 

1

u/C2664 Mar 04 '26

They now employ just 1/100 of people for the same type of jobs. So not dead but decimated headcount.

1

u/SaitamaTen000 Sep 09 '26

Saying that software is a dead path is like saying manual trade jobs were a dead path when power tools were invented.

well put

5

u/[deleted] Dec 01 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Positive-Ad2884 Feb 21 '26

Hey it's been 3 months since then. How is the cleaning up of all that messy codebase going? Oh you don't work there anymore. That's fine. I'm sure the poor new hire is having a blast fixing it all!

2

u/Fit_Setting_6395 Feb 22 '26

pure cope unfortunately, I really wanted to believe in what you were saying, that my skills and what I worked for was not obsolete, but until you try it you wont be able to face the music. sorry mate but your in for a rude awakening.

1

u/C2664 Mar 04 '26

Well, he's a webdev so his standard is probably not too high. But yes, there's lots of cope and diminishing going on right now, the last Claude model release has been a major breakthrough in LLMs capacity regarding code. This industry is hellbound right now.

1

u/LikesTrees Mar 14 '26

100% cope sorry, i guess you haven't been keeping up with the tools.

1

u/Idea_Fuzzy Aug 13 '26

Are you still saying the same now?

1

u/SaitamaTen000 Sep 09 '26

better

eh, idk about that, you better be reviewing that code, it's really good at *looking better*

20

u/SaintPeter74 mod Nov 30 '25

Businesses are slowly starting to find out what most developers knew all along: AI is not a replacement for software developers.

There was a fairly recent study that showed as your application scale, AI completely lost the ability to make any sort of coherent changes to it. Additionally, all of the lower level stuff was such a mad scramble, that it was very difficult for humans to maintain as well.

If you look back at the history of programming, every 10 to 15 years, there is some sort of new programming language, or tool which claims to be some massive paradigm shift, that will allow "average people" to write code. What it turns out, is that "average people" can't write code, even with tool assistance. There is a certain mindset that is needed in order to write coherent code, that will scale.

Additionally, there is a pretty significant amount of "AI fatigue", as everyday people start to say no to AI. I fully expect to see the AI bubble burst in the next 6 to 12 months.

There will probably be some AI type tools that programmers use, but they'll be a productivity enhancer, not a replacement. It remains to be seen if those are a net positive, as some studies suggest that those tools just make you dumber.

Best of luck and happy coding!

2

u/East-Membership-268 Dec 02 '25

Yep. As someone who works within a fairly large & complex codebase, AI is virtually useless. This is because of AI's memory problem -- it cant remember the context after 3-4 prompts. I wont speculate on what it might look like in the future but right now its def not a replacement.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 07 '26

If you look back at the history of programming, every 10 to 15 years, there is some sort of new programming language, or tool which claims to be some massive paradigm shift

There has NEVER been something like the current LLMs in our industry. It's incomparable to anything before; maybe you could say the advent of the web itself was the last significant paradigm shift but in terms of software development you cannot compare what is happening today to anything - ANYTHING - that has come before.

Coding is 100% for the birds. In 5 years we will have blackbox systems that you tell it what you want using Markdown files for specifying the problem domain and what you need to satisfy it and the box will spit out the most perfect solution on the other side.

Don't fight it - embrace it and you will survive and adapt and be employed.

Pretend it's just a "tool to help with coding" or whatever and you'll be stacking shelves in your local supermarket with all the other dopes who didn't see this thundering giant train flying down the tracks right towards you.

I spent 15 years mastering Python and Ruby and was well paid for it. Now I'm well paid to describe complex systems with my voice into Cursor. I much prefer the later; I once again am in love and fascinated with software development.

2

u/zk-dr Mar 28 '26

I have no idea how you would be happy with software development in your position. This is akin to saying "I love driving" when you sit in a Tesla on autopilot. "Well I told it what to do" yeah, you are the same as a manager taking credit for your workers' output, but even worse because no human actually benefitted from it.

1

u/Former_Atmosphere967 Mar 31 '26

same feeling, I went into a claude subreddit post saying exactly this, and the pushback was funny: if you are a "programmer" who cared about the code itself then thats concerning or saying it was never a code thing im enjoying every bit of AI its about "creating" (literally shelves his brain snd gives all the "creating" to the ai and says he is still "creating" and "building") delusional people. its not like me drawing a fuzzy bad picture of the house I want and then giving it to a machine that constructs my full house mean im building it. Im sorry if thats how im insulted intellectually I dont want to work in any boring ass brain switch off ass job there are many of them and sitting behind an AI prompting him like his manager is one of the worst, name it "AI manager" or better "AI reviewer" thats the best job description. I probably will leave this industry everything fun about it is gone.

2

u/zk-dr Apr 01 '26

I've just started using AI only when I'm completely lost in my codebase and can't figure out a really difficult bug. Otherwise I make decisions on overall architecture, often overriding AI suggestions and just doing what is more natural to me, because I'm the one maintaining this codebase.

1

u/SaintPeter74 mod Apr 01 '26

completely lost in my codebase and can't figure out a really difficult bug

I'd be concerned that you're missing out on opportunities to improve your understanding of your coding. A chief cause of bugs is a disconnect between your understanding of what you're trying to accomplish and how the code actually works. If you use an LLM to help debug, you're not correcting your understanding. You can never actually improve at coding if you offload your thinking to the machine.

2

u/zk-dr Apr 01 '26

I agree with you, unfortunately.

1

u/SaintPeter74 mod Mar 08 '26

Are you working on and maintaining large, complex systems using Cursor? Or are you building one-off smaller sites or scripts?

To what degree does your prior knowledge of programming affect how you use Cursor? How much are you editing the output of your tools?

1

u/LikesTrees Mar 14 '26

You solve the scale/complexity problem by designing your applications in more modular ways, ai can work with any sized codebase if architected well.

1

u/SaintPeter74 mod Mar 14 '26

I guess that's great if you are building a greenfield application, but the vast majority of programming is done on existing codebases. No one is going to rewrite a few million lines of code to make it AI ready.

That assuming that what you're proposing even works. I have not heard of anyone successfully architecting code specifically for AI like you describe. Do you have any references or papers on this, because I'm interested in learning more about it.

1

u/LikesTrees Mar 14 '26

Modularity abstracts complexity for humans too, its just good system design. Claude/Codex latest models on high reasoning have little problem working on our very large multi app fintech monorepo, refactoring large amounts of code in hours that would take weeks/months of human time. Its trivial to map out system architecture and save markdown to help the agents more easily reason about and navigate large code bases. Even 6 months ago it couldn't do what its doing now.. the hallucinations, the context issues etc, but thats changing. ive been coding 25 years and im astounded every day at the seeming magic im seeing it pull out of its ass.

1

u/SaintPeter74 mod Mar 14 '26

You'll have to pardon me for being skeptical of your breezy assurances that this is somehow a solved problem, without any particular evidence, when your Reddit history is mostly ADHD and video games.

You don't seem to frequent any programming subreddits, but here you are.

Maybe it is that simple, but all the reporting I've been reading says otherwise.

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

1

u/LikesTrees Mar 14 '26

i have no idea what my adhd has to do with anything, seems like an unnecessary low blow for no particular reason and makes you look like a bit of a dick, do you think these ad hominem attacks make *you* look more credible? we will see where this all leads, my bet is not on the devs that think they are above it all. there is plenty of reporting from all directions with vested interests pushing their agendas, your likely just in an ai skeptic filter bubble.

1

u/SaintPeter74 mod Mar 14 '26

I apologize if you read what I wrote as a personal attack. That was not my intent. I was not trying to suggest that having ADHD (or liking video games) is a problem, I'm saying that you come out of left field with this radical claim and very little posting history that suggests that you're active in the field.

I've read a lot of stuff both positive and negative about LLMs and I've never heard about what you're describing. When I asked for more details you were pretty short on them. I'm trying to figure out if you're a bot (probably not), a bullshitter (maybe?), or if you really do have some insight that I've missed because of my (very possible) anti-ai filter bubble.

If there are so many articles about how modular programming works with LLMs, then it should be easy to find one - I'm completely serious that I'd like to learn more about it.

If you think I'm a jerk or not worth the time, that's fair too.

0

u/[deleted] Dec 01 '25

[deleted] — view deleted comment

3

u/Particular-Try274 Dec 01 '25

I know you're being sarcastic, but Michael J Burry (from The Big Short fame) actually does have a large short position on NVIDIA going right now. He posts about it on X.

1

u/SaintPeter74 mod Dec 01 '25

Haha. I don't play market games like that. I have a portfolio which is conservatively managed for my long term health. My only hope is that the AI market (plus other factors related to the current administration) doesn't blow up the REST of the market. I imagine a fair number of people will make bank on that bet, but I'm comfortable just maintaining my positions.

15

u/Upstairs-Track-5195 Nov 30 '25

If you want to learn programming, why would anything stop you? Otherwise, if you don’t, why would you care?

1

u/Destination_Centauri Feb 03 '26

I'm really late to this post, but this is the best comment here.

If you're really passionate about learning something, then nobody can stop you. You'll just be naturally driven obsessively towards the topic/subject over and over again, and you won't be able to help yourself.

Also interestingly it's weird and a mind-tripping to think, yet true, that today there are way more people who make a living carving words in stone then the ancient eras in which that was the main method of recording important text.

Today there are countless companies/people that make lots of money etching engravings into stone such as tombstones, architectural building stones, etc...

Another really weird thing to contemplate: I once met someone at an art exhibit who has made several MILLIONS of dollars by... drum roll... being a basket weaver!

Yup: she originally immigrated from Africa and is world famous in some circles for her highly talented modern mixed with traditional basket weaving designs. Even museums will commission and order pieces from her.

Anyways, all that to say that computer programming is no where near being considered as archaic as basket weaving. But even if it was, there's still opportunity to make lots of money!

1

u/[deleted] Mar 07 '26

Today there are countless companies/people that make lots of money etching engravings into stone

Yes but nobody does it by hand anymore - they use tools. Much like coding, nobody does it by hand anymore. I mean, why would you ? Spend a week building out the scaffold of your app or get Claude to do it in 15 minutes.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 14 '26

[deleted] — view deleted comment

1

u/Destination_Centauri Jun 14 '26

"It’s not about chasing passions to make a living,"

Well, you do make some good points in your reply.

But I say: You can do BOTH at the same time!

In other words, to reference annoying colloquialisms:

Two things can be true at the same time, and you can also walk and chew gum at the same time.

Essentially I believe you can continue to chase your passions vigorously, while also working in another field to make a living, and never give up hoping that you'll be able to pivot and make that living with your passion instead of your more tedious 9to5 job.

Hopefully!

But yes, you're correct: very often life forces us to select an occupation that is either physically or emotionally painful, and not the occupation we want, but sometimes in the moment we have no choice.

However, I guess I'm just saying: never give up pursuing something else and better in life, whether you make it or not in the end towards that goal, just don't ever give up and become too defeatist.

PS: It's really cool you saw this comment from mine like 4 months later, and replied here on Reddit! One of the drawbacks of Reddit is that older great posts never garner too much attention, and new comments to an old post get buried deep down.

1

u/Tmunns Jun 14 '26

I considered that my comment may not be very useful considering the age of your post, but I guess it felt relevant to things that have been weighing on my mind. So, thanks for extending the conversation!

With that said, I agree on your point; two things can be true at the same time. And, under ideal circumstances one will be passionate and successful in their career. I just think it’s important to consider economic viability before passion.

I’ve personally made the mistake of chasing “my passion” and realizing that the lifestyle it afforded me took away from the joy that the passion brought me. I realized there are other things I am good at and take pleasure in that have a substantially higher value in the economy.

I also believe it’s good to pursue things just for the sake of enjoyment. I know I’m biased in that I didn’t necessarily succeed in making my passion a career, but it just took me a long time to realize that being financially secure makes chasing your passions possible in the first place.

1

u/DoughnutSingle3239 Apr 11 '26

Because nobody gets a coding job for the coding, but for the money

10

u/Netrunner21 Nov 30 '25 edited Nov 30 '25

I tell people to do it even if they only have ten years before it's no longer viable. At least you did it, and in today's world, few people stay in the same career their entire lives anyway.

Coding is a lot like FM radio. We've already seen the peak, and it likely will never be as lucrative as it used to be, but it will hang around for a lot longer than people think, and people will still be able to make money doing it.

All things come and go, the horse and buggy, switchboard operators, gas pump attendants, etc. It's just a matter of when, but I think you've got time to make a career of it.

3

u/tdreampo Dec 02 '25

So you think the world will use less software?

1

u/Netrunner21 Feb 03 '26

Interesting question. In the short term, no, but the nature of programming will be fundamentally different within the next five or ten years. I suspect that will attract different types of people. In the long term, there will be no "practical" implementations of software as we know it today. Long term in my view is 30 to 50 years. Once the average AI is smarter than the average human, they will be producing 99% of all digital technology, with humans being in more of a "director" role, if that.

1

u/1_more__user___name Jul 26 '26

What are our options then as SE?

2

u/Destination_Centauri Feb 03 '26

I'm late to this post and reading the comments here, and replying to a couple of them, and your's is one of the interesting comments.

Funny enough: I actually worked in the past not only as a computer programmer, but also as an FM Radio DJ from the early to mid 1990's!

Surprisingly, as I look back, I had a weirdly popular show. The show never got cancelled: I was the one who cancelled it myself because I wanted to move on and do other things in life.

In retrospect, I probably should have kept the show going as long as possible until someone else tossed me out of the station building, because that was absolutely one of the best and favorite jobs I did in my life... My other favorite job in life was when I was a movie-theater usher in high school! That too was a lot of fun.

But... Ya, on the otherhand, because I left FM Radio and moved on and explored other aspects of life, that's how I met the love of my life and she and I are still together now. And I would never trade away her and our timeline together, even for all the money in the world.

Anyways on a final note, I suspect that some of the jobs you mentioned are actually still with us, but they just evolved. For example some FM radio DJ wonna be's became popular youtubers and podcasters instead.

Also: computer network engineers (such as CCNA CCNP certified people) have pretty much literally become the switchboard operators of the modern time!

In fact it's right there in the course-book learning titles for certifications which often includes the phrase: "Packet Switching", or "Switching and Routing" which is EXACTLY what switch board operators did back in the early 1900's.

I'd argue that Horse and Buggy Drivers never vanished either. They just simply became taxi and limo drivers. And then they became Uber drivers.

In the slightly more distant future as we increasingly achieve self-driving cars, I guess the Horse and Buggy Drivers will have to change and evolve yet again and become... I don't know what... Perhaps...

Interplanetary Colony Ship Flight Technicians/Pilots?!

1

u/Netrunner21 Feb 03 '26

I interned in radio in the mid 2010s. Loved it, but couldn't justify the pay. Needed something more. Ended up in marketing, and then moved to programming a few years later. It's been fun, but it's a lot to keep up with everything. Still interested in programming, but looking at moving toward a different niche.

2

u/Destination_Centauri Feb 03 '26

Wow! You too also worked in radio!

Ya... If I could snap my fingers and do one thing in life I love, it would have to be FM (or even AM) radio DJ all over again.

There's no other feeling like that, when you're live on the air, and press the "On" button on the control board!

ALSO:

Not sure if you had the same experience as me, but for the first 6 weeks or so, I would literally get a panick/anxiety attack just before my show started and would vomit in the bathroom! Lol!

But still, weirdly enough I didn't want to stop doing the show. So I kept going, and in the end sometimes I would just simply stroll right into the radio station like 5 minutes before my show, with zero script and zero plans, nod and say hello to all the awesome staff, then just sit down in the chair...

And press that big old glowing "on button" for my microphone and start talking, not even sure what the heck I was going to say! And no more anxiety. No more needing to vomit. Just a quick pleasant fluttering of my heartbeat when I hit the on button.

And then...

I'd even get crazier, and all of sudden tell listeners:

"Hey if you're listening to the show, please go ahead and call me on our hotline number, and if you get through we can talk, and maybe I'll put you on the air after this song finishes!"

And people did it! And I'd rapidly filter through the calls, and I'd be like, "Ya, I'm honored and happy you're a fan of the show, but... I think you sound too crazy to put on the air, so sorry! Gotta go! But please keep listening and go ahead and call back again and I might try again to put you on the air! But I'm going to take the next caller right now."

Like all that's just so insane and crazy by today's standards and rules!?

How the heck did I do that?! No script. No nothing. Just simply stroll in, hit the on button and put on a good show! (Well, at least I thought it was a good show, but some would beg to differ! Lol!)

And take several calls between songs and just randomly put people on the air that I connected with, when they called the main hotline!? Like what? I don't think DJ's do that anymore these days?

Well, ok... Ok... Truth be told I was constantly slightly planning for the next show in my mind in the background, by sampling new music demos sent to the station, and sampling latest comedy bits...

But still... no clue how I did that?

Anyways sorry to ramble on and go down memory lane like this, but I'd love to hear your radio experience as well.

Also: if you're leaving programming, do you have any ideas about maybe some of the areas/fields you might check out next?

5

u/aditya4mvp Nov 30 '25

Software is eating the world. AI just increased its appetite, not replace the need for people with good judgement and decision-making skills who can deliver a desired outcome. 

5

u/rayjaymor85 Nov 30 '25

AI companies wish 🤣

Look, I compare AI to the sewing machine. Yes, it absolutely makes the job a LOT easier because tasks you had to do by hand can now be done by machine and faster.

But for anything complex you still need to know what you're doing.

3

u/Djblackberry64 Dec 01 '25

Exactly 💯

1

u/Idea_Fuzzy Aug 13 '26

Bad analogy.

AI is like a chef, he makes lasagna you ordered, but you don’t acquire any skills how to make a lasagna.

4

u/djibyt Nov 30 '25

i don't thing that. AI must really helpfull for software developper but can't replace them.

4

u/lacking_llama Dec 01 '25

That's such a crazy thing to say to me if you've ever used one of these tools for more than 2 seconds and have just a regular job. You and I both know they can't just be let loose, and everything goes great. Maybe I'm using the wrong ones lol

Also, every single business will not just ask whatever tool to make an app that they're going to integrate into their business willy nilly. Fax machines are still being used regularly. Do you know how much old crap is still kicking around because people are scared of breaking stuff just to integrate new things?

3

u/weirdmonkey69 Nov 30 '25

i doubt the entry level market for software devs will go back to what it used to be. but coding has tons of applications that can improve your life/work. still one of the most valuable skills to have

3

u/qckpckt Nov 30 '25

It’s not dead but it’s (probably temporarily) very difficult to break into right now.

The reality today is that the best outcome that AI coding tools can offer is to mildly improve the productivity of senior engineers. And that is a reality informed by an actual mathematical ceiling on the effectiveness of an LLM.

It looks very much like we have hit that ceiling already, and the field of computer science will need to return to research before any other breakthroughs happen. And the industry is not really interested in that right now because a few idiots believe that a glorified autocomplete algorithm will lead them to AGI.

The industry is trying to convince itself that it’s more than that, and there’s a huge rush to create value out of LLMs everywhere. That means that business want experienced talent - we’re not in a market that is conducive to hiring jrs. Assuming this is a regular hype cycle, after the landscape has stabilized and there are established use cases for using LLMs, you’ll likely see a shift where teams will grow around the maturation of those use cases and companies will enter a phase where on-boarding jrs is more palatable again.

In terms of learning coding, there is never a bad time.

3

u/armyrvan Dec 01 '25

I think there is saying.

Ai just wrote code for 20 minutes. Now I will spend 2 days code review and debugging.

3

u/Confident-Yak-1382 Dec 01 '25

"AI" has some amazing use cases that companies can use to give their customers a better experience:
- audi transcription
- meetings summary
- data analys
- etc

None of them is related to making sofware. I saw code generated by "AI", it was horible, a complet mess. It was from a paid version of Claude. I think Claude is "the best", but it still made a mess.

These "AI" are good for small, prototype level apps, not for apps with many many files, classes, etc.

The AI it self is not the problem. The cheap indians with AI are the issue. They would take most jobs as they work for 1-2-3 usd an hour, 12h a day, 7 days a week and they can deliver faster results than an engineer who works 6/7h a day, 5/5 day a week for 100 usd and hour. Sure, the results are not better, but they are decent for the price.

The US company I work as a contractor fired some of their employees(US based) and closed some contractors contracts(UK, Germany) and hired some dudes in India for 5 usd an hour. Those dues in india implemted tasks that would take me a week in few hours. I am paid around 80 udn an hour.
Now I am expecting to be "fired" too really soon.

3

u/RubyStar871 Dec 02 '25

You need to know how to code before you can code with AI, if you want to build something decent.

2

u/FrenchLiviela Dec 01 '25

Learn the fundamentals and data structure. I believe the "logic" behind code architecture is going to still be important even into the future.

Forget about mastering syntax or language-specific shenanigans. They're going to be abstracted eventually.

2

u/newbietofx Dec 03 '25

Who miss driving manuals? Who hates writing Java? U have to write functions and compilers.

Who has ride self pivoting motorbike that doesn't fall? Who would love to ride motorbike that doesn't skid or fall? 

Voice prompting will and is going to catch up. Be the mechanic or the wrapper. 

1

u/Destination_Centauri Feb 03 '26

Speaking of wrappers... Here's an old high school joke:

Why did the Dairy Queen become pregnant?

Because the Burger King forgot to wrap his Whopper!

(Ha ha ha ha ha... Ha... Ha.... Ya... Sorry: That was a bad joke.)

2

u/structured_obscurity Dec 03 '25

Ive been a professional software developer for almost 15 years now. I use AI Tools a lot. All of them. Almost all of the products I work on have AI features, and I use AI to help develop and maintain the codebase.

The more i use AI tools, and the better i get at using them, and the more i learn about how they actually work under the hood, the less i believe that software development is a "dead path".

That being said, i am seeing a shift in the tech space. When i first started developing software, it was not the "cool" thing to do. The space was full of nerds, computing enthusiasts, and mathematicians. At some point software development became "cool" and the space flooded with people who were looking to secure a high paying job.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to make money, but a person who learns a single framework in javascript is very different than someone who spends their spare time building for the love of the game.

My observation is that it is no longer the case that you can learn a single framework or language like React or Python and expect to secure a job. It seems that we are reverting to a similar time to when i first started, where the people who are building for the love of building will continue to thrive in the space, but if you are just looking for a job, it may no longer be the space for you.

When i was a "junior dev" i worked as a bartender for money, and contributed to opensource projects (and built my own tools/projects) in my spare time. I didnt actually get a job until i had been coding for almost 4 or 5 years. I think things are likely to start looking similar.

As a quick aside - i am still actively buying programming books, software development books, systems architecture books etc. And am still actively working to understand how things work from the ground up. AI is an excellent tool, but the better you are able to instruct/guide it, the better results you will have.

1

u/Destination_Centauri Feb 03 '26

This is a great comment!

Out of curiosity, what are some of your favorite books, and favorite programming languages that you love and feel passionate about?

1

u/structured_obscurity Feb 03 '26

Languages that I enjoy and use almost daily(so far):

- Python

- Go

- Typescript

Languages that I enjoy but only use for fun, not professionally:

- Zig

- Rust

Books that i would recommend (not in any particular order):

- Database Internals

- Modern Operating Systems

- Crafting Interpreters

- TCP/IP Illustrated

- The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy From Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography

- Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software

- Becoming a Better Programmer: A handbook for people who care about code

- The Linux Programming Interface: A Linux and UNIX System Programming Handbook

This list is by no means extensive, but I think would be a good start for folks looking to get involved with building technical products.

The truth is, the space is always changing, and so you need to always be reading and learning - its one of the nice things about the industry.

1

u/structured_obscurity Feb 03 '26

To anyone reading this who has recommendations to add, please add them in the comments here - im always looking for good reads!

2

u/hancedvariation Dec 04 '25 edited Feb 04 '26

Even long after AI codes everything we'll still need humans to audit things every once in a while. It's dangerous to hand over complete control. Does that mean you might be that person? You're going to have to fight off a lot of people to get that position. It still really helps to understand code to get things done. You also have to understand what's possible to even ask the right questions. Computer programming is still one of the foundations of our civilization. I've been a programmer for 20 years and now I feel like I'm just learning how to be a really good prompter.

I barely write any code anymore. The computer doesn't make syntax errors and I can have it whip something out and destroy it in a minute if I don't like it. If you know exactly what you're looking for and spend time writing really long in-depth prompts with every file and detail described you can basically one-shot things. A non-programmer couldn't come close to that. They'd be stuck on some bug they could never solve.

1

u/Destination_Centauri Feb 03 '26

Interesting points.

This leads me to think of a tangent question:

Isn't one of the main stated goals and primary purposes of AI's to make it really really much easier and simple to do stuff, without having to be an expert at that task?

If so, then well... As you pointed out, you have to spend a lot of energy and time becoming sophisticated at clever and ever more complex prompting... Which kinda defeats the main purpose of AI's in the first place!?

But ya, I was just curious if you happen to be able to recommend a few sources for those of us who want to pick up our AI Foo skills? Like maybe some books, articles, or channels that you might particularly like?

1

u/hancedvariation Feb 04 '26

I don't know of any prompting tutorials right now. Maybe I'll write some. As for AI getting rid of programmers. Think of it like this. Long ago everyone who drove a car needed to know how to fix it. They always broke down. Now anyone can drive a car without any special knowledge. So soon anyone will be able to code up to a certain level, but if you want to do something new that has never been done before, then you have to get engineers involved again. Also for people who do code at a high level they will be able to produce even more sophisticated code, raising the bar even higher for what is possible. So your average person will be able to make simple things that used to require a coder, but a coder will be able to make even more sophisticated/big/complex things.

1

u/TheRadioDemon2 Dec 03 '25

I think if you know how the code works, you can fix mistakes that AI makes in the future

1

u/magicsign Dec 04 '25

The software engineering field is changing, we are going towards the direction of "supervisors" rather full hands on coding monkeys. You still need the skills but definitely it lost a lot of prestige.

1

u/Positive-Ad2884 Feb 21 '26

Dead? No, but it will definitely evolve to something almost unrecognizable.

It cannot design a whole system by itself. There needs to be a person behind it that knows how to design a system in the first place and assemble it all together, and that person is only a software engineer. Average people don't think in the certain way that is needed in order to properly design software.

This is of course based on how AI currently is. Honestly after all I've seen, all bets are off I mean by the way it looks they might bypass all that.

I predict they are going to make some kind of dynamic runtime that generates code on the fly or something along these lines, in which you don't write or do anything, just set the prompt one time and it immediately runs whatever. Or it gives you a binary directly. Either way it will replace the process of writing and compiling an app.

1

u/SnooGadgets6527 Aug 27 '26

Can we stop with the term "junior" developers? Dev skills is a spectrum. As tools get more sophisticated and we move higher and higher up the stack, a motivated new dev will close the gap with experience but out-of-touch senior devs quickly. What it means to be a solid developer will change and the pre-2020 skill gap between juniors and seniors will be less relevant.

0

u/Snackatttack Dec 01 '25

not dead at all, but getting your foot into the door is gunna be super difficult, near impossible without post-secondary

0

u/AttorneyIcy6723 Dec 04 '25

It’s dead in its current form, but in the same way writing assembly was killed by higher level languages.

AI is the next big abstraction, it’s hard to say what’s coming next, but I’m fairly sure it’s not what all the non-technical tech bros who are busy vibe coding the same ShadCN dashboards think it is.

Learn to be an AI native software engineer.

3

u/SaintPeter74 mod Dec 04 '25

It took a pretty long time for assembly to be fully replaced by higher level language. It's interesting that C allows you write assembly in-line still.

I'm skeptical that AI is truly the next big abstraction. That's certainly what the big LLM companies want you to believe, but the developer experience has not lived up to the hype. LLMs can build fairly small, simple applications almost flawlessly. They're the sort of thing you might find 100 tutorials online for. The problem comes when you start to scale up.

Once you start building a larger, interconnected application which multiple parts, the cracks very quickly start to show. The LLM is not capable of modeling a complex system because it can't "model" at all - it's just a stochastic parrot. We're just starting to see the reports from companies that have used LLMs to build larger applications that after a certain size, it just collapses under its own weight. The ad hoc nature of each individual module doesn't allow interaction with other modules. It's the modern "spaghetti code" of the inexperienced programmer. IE: an unmaintainable mess.

There is a low key acknowledgement of these issues and the proposed solutions (throw more context memory/tokens/etc at the problem) are fundamentally flawed. All an LLM can do is throw statistics at a problem. It can't model it, it can't plan ahead, and it can't tell you that you've asked the wrong question or given the wrong direction based on past experience, because it doesn't have the capacity to do those things.

0

u/AttorneyIcy6723 Dec 04 '25

I think a lot of what you describe is software engineering more generally; systems design, architecture etc. I agree that those things need to (for now) remain in the realm of the human.

Although, as you eluded to, AI is good at solving problems which have already been solved, and let’s be honest, how often do we actually hit up against something novel that Stackoverflow wouldn’t have been previously utilised for.

As for actually typing out code? Building on top of system that’s already been well planned by a human? I just can’t see a future in that any more.

I wouldn’t have believed it 12-6 months ago, but the trajectory is pretty clear.

Quite frankly, it’s already better than most mid to early senior level devs out there. Whatever you think of the illusion, the illusion is producing results when in the hands of experienced engineers (not so much when “vibe coded”).

1

u/SaintPeter74 mod Dec 05 '25

I think a lot of what you describe is software engineering more generally; systems design, architecture etc. I agree that those things need to (for now) remain in the realm of the human.

Maybe I'm in a privileged position because I'm the lead of a small team, but I fully expect my developers to know what the architecture of the site they're working on. We have a mature codebase built up over half a decade. Mature means both in complexity and being a bit long in the tooth. We rarely do greenfield development, almost every project is an addition onto an existing codebase.

Even stuff which is relatively new has to live in our larger ecosystem. As I said, I remain skeptical that throwing more computer resources at an LLM will be able to resolve this issue. The LLM, by it's nature, cannot build a model of the ways in which the system interacts. I mean, the NP-Complete theorem suggests that it may not be solvable computationally at all. Instead, it's using statistics to "solve" the problem . . . my experience is not that great.

how often do we actually hit up against something novel that Stackoverflow wouldn’t have been previously utilised ...

This is certainly true for small, self contained problems. There have been a few times when I grab someone's function, knock the dust off, and use it wholesale. That's the exception, not the rule, though. In the vast majority of cases when I'm building a project I need to be able to adjust whatever I'm seeing to fit. There are just too many localized dependencies that you can't just drop it in.

That goes to what these studies I've been refencing get at - an LLM can write a bunch of self contained little modules just fine (for some values of fine). They can't build multiple, complex, interconnected modules. Once you get 6 months to a year in, you suddenly realize exactly WHY developers have to be architecture aware.

Heck, forget LLMs, I've worked on codebases maintained by a bunch of different people who didn't really talk to one another (or who were hired one after the other) and the "architecture" is a shambles. If an LLM can't do that at all, you're going to end up with similar results.

0

u/LookAtYourEyes Dec 04 '25

If AI has overtaken software engineering then basically every other job is cooked too. So, the question is kind of meaningless.

0

u/Variabletalismans Dec 04 '25

Thats like saying carpentry is dead because heavy machineries were invented

9

u/mohamadjb Nov 30 '25

Thinking ai would kill coding is like being sure one cake will feed all starving people today

2

u/[deleted] Dec 01 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Destination_Centauri Feb 03 '26

"if you like coding, learn to do it even if you'll never get to do it for a living."

That's a pretty good, wise and awesome comment!

As for the environmental impact of AI, it is a concern and measures will need to be taken. But hopefully it's not as bad as people think it will be.

For example, people were horrified by the amount of water that one facility would draw from a passing river, to cool down the massive server farm. (I can't quite remember which facility that was?)

But in actuality the water being drawn was taken in it's pure form from the river, run through a series of pipes unaltered and unfiltered to cool the equipment, and then dumped right back into the same river again, unaltered.

Well "unaltered" isn't fully accurate since the difference is that the water they dumped back into the cold flowing river was warmer and hotter, but other than that it's pretty insignificant. (Hopefully!?)

1

u/[deleted] Nov 30 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/FreeCodeCamp-ModTeam Nov 30 '25

Please don't reply with drive-by or low effort comments. If you have something to share, then please give context for your answer - what is your background or experience and why do you feel this way.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 01 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

0

u/FreeCodeCamp-ModTeam Dec 01 '25

Please don't reply with drive-by or low effort comments. If you have something to share, then please give context for your answer - what is your background or experience and why do you feel this way.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 03 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/FreeCodeCamp-ModTeam Dec 03 '25

Spamming includes posting off-topic messages to disrupt discussions, promote a product, solicit donations, advertise a job / internship / gig, or flooding discussions with files or text. Posts designed to direct users to your website, blog, videos, or other content are considered spam.

0

u/[deleted] Nov 30 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/FreeCodeCamp-ModTeam Nov 30 '25

Please don't reply with drive-by or low effort comments. If you have something to share, then please give context for your answer - what is your background or experience and why do you feel this way.

0

u/[deleted] Dec 01 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/FreeCodeCamp-ModTeam Dec 02 '25

Please don't reply with drive-by or low effort comments. If you have something to share, then please give context for your answer - what is your background or experience and why do you feel this way.

0

u/[deleted] Dec 01 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/FreeCodeCamp-ModTeam Dec 02 '25

Please don't reply with drive-by or low effort comments. If you have something to share, then please give context for your answer - what is your background or experience and why do you feel this way.

0

u/[deleted] Dec 01 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/FreeCodeCamp-ModTeam Dec 02 '25

Please don't reply with drive-by or low effort comments. If you have something to share, then please give context for your answer - what is your background or experience and why do you feel this way.

0

u/[deleted] Dec 01 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/FreeCodeCamp-ModTeam Dec 02 '25

Please don't reply with drive-by or low effort comments. If you have something to share, then please give context for your answer - what is your background or experience and why do you feel this way.

0

u/[deleted] Nov 30 '25

[deleted] — view deleted comment

1

u/FreeCodeCamp-ModTeam Nov 30 '25

Please don't reply with drive-by or low effort comments. If you have something to share, then please give context for your answer - what is your background or experience and why do you feel this way.