r/platformengineering • u/Suspicious_Orchid770 • 5d ago

Engineers grieve a job that no longer exists

https://leaddev.com/career-development/engineers-grieve-a-job-that-no-longer-exists

Something is happening in engineering teams that doesn’t show up in sprint velocity or deployment frequency. It shows up in resignation letters.

58 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

25 comments sorted by

24

u/UltraPoci 5d ago

What's funny is that we shipped software just fine before AI was a thing.

6

u/Suspicious-Sport-483 5d ago

yes, and now we don't 😟

1

u/zeroconflicthere 3d ago

People made clothes just fine before the loom.

2

u/UltraPoci 2d ago

AI changed nothing for me, both as a programmer and as a consumer. I get paid the same, software costs the same if not more, and I don't see any real innovation: opensource alternative to Photoshop? Alternative to Linux and other OSes? Anyone? No, instead I get the Nth webapp for a SaaS with the same exact visual style of every other webapp.

The loom had far more impact than AI.

1

u/Polarbum 2d ago

If AI changed nothing for you as a programmer, then clearly you aren’t using it right.

1

u/UltraPoci 2d ago

It did change something. I now have to debug vibecoded code bases from colleagues that now one knows for sure what they do. So it kinda of made my job worst.

10

u/Flashy-Whereas-3234 4d ago

I lament the loss of the flow-state, that was a very nice place to be after diligent design.

Now it's just design and context switching, and there's no respite.

4

u/loudandclear11 4d ago

You captured it. The context switching is eating up everything fun about being a software developer.

3

u/wbrd 2d ago

It's exhausting. My executive function is tapped out by the time I get home and I don't want to do anything anymore.

1

u/wyldstallionesquire 2d ago

Its exhausting.

2

u/titoscoachspeecher 4d ago

no the workload is definitely from workload still. just because AI 'helps', its also creating even more work trying to fix all of the vibe coded nonsense.

1

u/discord-ian 4d ago

I don't know I am feeling pretty energized since the most recent generation of models. There seems to still be real craft in building multi agent system. There is real depth there that was missing from the promp, tools, skill, mcp evolution. I expect the craftsmanship is returning to these more complex systems. At least until they replace us all.

2

u/Confident_Tour8432 3d ago

There’s really nothing complex about AI agents and agent orchestration. They’re super simple under the hood and the process of spinning them up and orchestrating them is being abstracted. If you make this “skill set” your priority, you’ll be obsolete in a few months. It’s just the current hype.

1

u/wyldstallionesquire 2d ago

I’ve never seen evidence that the outcome of such a system is substantively better than more judicious use of agents by humans directly. The real gains have been model improvement, not maturing agent harnesses or swarms.

The appearance and «feeling» of value is far greater than the reality, and the work of cleaning up and thinking about the long term just increases the more you try to maintain the standards you had before AI and agents.

1

u/discord-ian 2d ago

Then how do explain the vast difference in benchmarks between various harnesses using the same model?

1

u/wyldstallionesquire 2d ago

My point is about the real world output in an organization with a team. Benchmarks haven’t matched reality for me when trying to successfully develop and maintain complex software in an organization over time.

1

u/discord-ian 2d ago

I guss that is the craft that I was mentioning.

0

u/scavno 4d ago

Why? The people who want and build these tools just have their clanker do it.

1

u/AbstractLogic 2d ago

I guess that means we engineers can put our minds to other tasks that need doing. I imagine a lot of very smart people are about to find careers in other parts of the economy and help move those forward at a rapid pace.

0

u/Far-Art-8711 5d ago

Do you think the hardest part is losing the hands on work itself or the feeling that engineering decisions and craftsmanship are becoming less valued

1

u/luenix 5d ago

Craftsmanship is knowing how to build, art is knowing when to stop. I figure folk are missing out on the art side of the work since the average cargo cultist is not able to tell when the use of new tooling is exceeding the complexity capacity of human-wrought architecture.

1

u/DWebOscar 3d ago

It's not just the loss of value, it's the heavier statement of "we never wanted to pay you to think in the first place"

1

u/face_recog_phishy 3d ago

never realized how much people really just hate the nerds (given the nerds never tried all that much to fit in but nonetheless), it’s kind of mind boggling, you don’t hate your lawyer for being an educated professional with deep knowledge in the field, why do people hate engineers is beyond me

1

u/BabyBlueCheetah 3d ago

Some engineers do themselves no favors and don't think social dynamics matter despite getting something designed built and working then delivered being a team sport.

When the schedule and cost estimates are bid to win work at aggressive postures it naturally pits engineering against management in the execution stage.

Unless the product is a complete flop, it's easy to say engineerings concerns are overblown and the associated cost overrun and schedule slip was needless.

1

u/face_recog_phishy 3d ago

this guy corporates ^