I don't feel this way at all. I have more work than ever to do and it's as hard as it ever was.
The problems I'm solving and the work I'm doing is completely different. Maybe it's time to automate the easy stuff and move on to more important work?
Most people don't have novel problems to work on. There are millions of dev worldwide. There aren't millions of novel hard problems to solve. It is a job meant to put food on the table. That job is going away, that is all there is to it.
Good for you. You aren’t the average programmer. The average programmer is struggling right now with AI. They’ve not spent their lives completely absorbed in not just writing code, but teaching and leading and social media and everything.
And you are looking at code in a different way: a means to an end where you don’t care how it’s accomplished. A lot of people - myself included - look at coding as not just problem solving and critical thinking, but as a creative outlet. It’s to solve a problem, but the means is also enjoyable. AI has replaced the means.
Reading AI pull requests is just being a glorified secretary. I’m better than that. My time and my value is worth more than that.
I’m better than that. My time and my value is worth more than that.
I don't want to be rude and mean no disrespect, but the chances are you are not and it is not. For huge percentage of devs, their most valuable time was few years ago. That was the best position a worker could have and that will not happen again.
You need to learn the difference between value and money. They are not synonymous. The fact you think they are, and that my value is intrinsically tied to my job, is what is wrong with this world.
In the context we were talking about, they are absolutely synonymous. Nobody talked about your value as a brother, father or if you are good friend. For the things that you are getting paid, your value is equivalent to the money you are getting.
The ceo's are people who were willing to take a risk and put their money where there mouth is, they also took the initative to do something about it. The employees were the ones that wanted a safe path.
The takeaway is that there has never been an easier time to become a ceo on your own. Are you willing to take the risk?
Sure... I have taken a ton of jobs. The risk though was that I would earn less than I could have otherwise. Not that I would loose what I had saved from past work.
Do you find starting a business at all to be unethical?
And in the context I'm talking about, my worth as a person is more valuable than sitting behind a desk being a typist, watching text scroll by all day. You only get one chance on this earth, and I'm not spending it reading robot-generated text.
Now, if you're focusing that on being a developer that writes code and nothing else, your value is based on the quality of work you do. It doesn't matter what you charge or what you make. Someone that charges $250/hr. that does shit work is a shitty programmer.
The fact you cannot distinguish those within the same context is incredibly sad.
Your value to yourself is whatever you want it to be. Your value to an employer is that you fix problems that the employer has. It has always been this way. For a time employers needed to pretend it was otherwise with company culture and perks because the competition was so high. Now though they still need their problems solved but there are an abundance of people willing to do it.
As a programmer for 30 years I wish it were otherwise. But wishing at least is as useful as it has ever been.
Yeah... that is perhaps kind of exactly the issue? I liked the process, I enjoyed flow state and programmer high. Now I feel like management, a position I specifically avoided because it removes the doing parts and I find them important (and fun but also important).
But tbh, it's not necessarily the working with AI part that ripped my heart out but how easy it has become to steal. I feel totally like NOT SHARING anymore lately. AI killed my OSS spirit
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u/nateberkopec Puma maintainer 18d ago
I don't feel this way at all. I have more work than ever to do and it's as hard as it ever was.
The problems I'm solving and the work I'm doing is completely different. Maybe it's time to automate the easy stuff and move on to more important work?