We all agree that an average software developer today is closely resembling the horse-carriage just when automobiles were becoming mainstream around 120 years ago.
And coming to HN daily and finding at least one such lament from a software engineer is becoming quite tiresome.
We are all, mostly, rational thinkers and worship logic and reasoning even more than our respective gods.
With the context built-up enough, I would like to challenge the community to come up with ways to counter this death march that we find ourselves on. We are now, with every passing day, becoming more and more dependent on Agentic Coding. This is bringing the inevitable end to our profession closer at an exponential rate.
It seems we are like a drug-addict that knows that soon, one day, the drug would be a likely end of him, yet carries on consuming it.
How can we control this?
How do we slow down the pace?
How do we bring it to a halt?
Is there a cold-turkey way out of this?
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50230965
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50188865
PS: This a resubmission of my post [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50232407]. It got flagged for some reason. I sent a mail to HN, but didnt get any reply.
Agents have been useful at providing examples, and quickly searching through errors.
But humans can sense context in a way no machine, to this day, has been able.
Also I see it highly unlikely that a person can understand the output of an agent, if they aren't familiar with the work itself.
Agents are more like assistants. The complement, not substitute, an already capable professional.
This professionals often have to steer the wheel, so the agent looks elsewhere, and it doesn't continue looping into nonsense.
Funny, I don't remember this wailing when every other industry was destroyed. When cars replaced horses, planes replaced ships, computers replaced typists, phones replaced travel agents.
But replace the programmers? Woe is us, the end of humanity is here. How do we save ourselves from the machines?
Planes didn't replace ships. Ships travel was always for the rich and now we have luxury cruises. Planes offered a cheaper quicker but rougher experience. Cars replaced horses.
Typist moved to computer typist or data entry. Travel agents still exist but that career is dead.
I think programmers have already been replaced now you manage an ai programmer. Next leap will remove that role and many others.
Not really :) - My parents traveled by ship between the UK and South Africa in the 70's. And they certainly weren't in the "rich" category, and it wasn't a "holiday cruise", it was "how to get from here to there".
>> Cars replaced horses.
Exactly my point. There was a huge industry around horses (stabling, grooming, farriers, vets, cleaning the streets etc) and all that went away. Yes there were new industries (mechanics, panel-beaters etc), and that's the point. Change happened, and people adapted...
The US can't agree within themselves on pretty much anything. They actively trash global co-operation on, well, everything. Their politics is driven by money, and specifically money from AI owners (aka Musk).
And once the US has figured out what the bounds should be, you expect the other 190 countries to just fall in line? Like, um, why?
What exactly are "high penalties " you have in mind? Trade? Military action? Kidnapping leaders? The US has done all those in the last 12 months and achieved precisely nothing.
If this is the "best path" you can come up with, then, well, you may as well lobby for fairies and unicorns.
you sound more concerned about your job security than getting the job done itself.
with AI our role just transcends to being captains of the ship, plotting marks in the map and steering the wheel as AI does the rowing of the oars.
i do understand how much enjoyable it is rowing the oars ourselves but it's time to take the wheel, cap.
Given this, I think doom is now almost certain, but there are 3-levels of doom, including one you can prep for, and one you can prep to not partake in.
We're not going to control it, we're not going to slow the pace. We might be able to bring it to a halt if people in power get extremely serious very fast, but we're so far from that that realistically it's not happening.
Sorry.
You're suggesting that Canada bomb US data centers? Or that the US bombs one in China? Or that Germany bombs one in Poland? I mean, what could possibly go wrong with that idea?