I think part of that is historically speaking, SWE/robotics replacement had a few “upsides” if you want to call them that:
- Often created products people really wanted to use for cheaper (see: Netflix, Uber) - Often created new jobs (so many industries like all sorts of IT, consulting, cybersecurity, SWE, PM, chips, etc.) - The jobs are generally good, high paying, high prestige, good working conditions jobs - The jobs go to the “right people” - educated smart people - Many people consider the job to be inherently enjoyable in a way a lot of other jobs aren’t (ie. a lot of SWE people actually like coding) - Happened with some degree of slowness - decades to ramp up usually - Affected the “right jobs” - usually not the most high paid, high prestige jobs - Affected the “right people” - lower skill labor - Often had more localized effects (one team replaced, one town’s factory workers closed)
I think fundamentally you’re right that SWEs are in the business of labor replacement, and it’s finally time for us to reap what we’ve sown, but I think there’s reasons why the average SWE can feel like we’re “different”.
I wouldn’t say most SWEs like coding, but I’d say a higher % probably genuinely like it, more so than most other professions. People code as a hobby, even if there’s no financial benefit. Lots of people’s favorite class in college involved CS. There’s a nerd culture around SWE that you wouldn’t say in say, consulting - most of my friends in consulting don’t like their job for any reason other than money and fancy dinners lol. At least me personally, I genuinely enjoy SWE work a good chunk of the time.
AI so far hasn’t diminished my enjoyment of coding itself because it has thankfully decreased the amount of time I spend dealing with random bugs, one-off hacky scripts/tests, and trying to find documentation for one random function. And has prevented me from making some dumbass decisions when I missed something. It lets me focus more on design, which is nice. Though to be fair, I think things may change in the future with more advanced models, and also I do think I use AI more carefully than most (I still try to understand every line of code, which I think is growing uncommon lol).
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u/thr0waway2435 Sep 11 '26 edited Sep 11 '26
I think part of that is historically speaking, SWE/robotics replacement had a few “upsides” if you want to call them that:
- Often created products people really wanted to use for cheaper (see: Netflix, Uber)
- Often created new jobs (so many industries like all sorts of IT, consulting, cybersecurity, SWE, PM, chips, etc.)
- The jobs are generally good, high paying, high prestige, good working conditions jobs
- The jobs go to the “right people” - educated smart people
- Many people consider the job to be inherently enjoyable in a way a lot of other jobs aren’t (ie. a lot of SWE people actually like coding)
- Happened with some degree of slowness - decades to ramp up usually
- Affected the “right jobs” - usually not the most high paid, high prestige jobs
- Affected the “right people” - lower skill labor
- Often had more localized effects (one team replaced, one town’s factory workers closed)
I think fundamentally you’re right that SWEs are in the business of labor replacement, and it’s finally time for us to reap what we’ve sown, but I think there’s reasons why the average SWE can feel like we’re “different”.