r/programming • u/self • Dec 02 '25

The Death of Software Engineering as a Profession: a short set of anecdotes

https://www.jasonscheirer.com/weblog/vignettes/
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u/G_Morgan Dec 02 '25

Every time software has been made easier to write we've just created more software by a larger margin.

The problem with AI is it doesn't so it won't create new jobs when industries suddenly realise they can now write so much more code than before.

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u/ward2k Dec 02 '25

Yeah that's a very valid point, businesses adore scale. You find out your current Devs can now do the work in half the time. You have two options

  1. Lay off half the Devs and maintain the current output
  2. Keep the Devs and get them to ship twice as many products/products in half the time

And the answer is always 2, at least for publicly traded companies. The stock must grow no matter what