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The thing about AI...
Software Engineers Worldwide are on notice: "Your job will be replaced by AI generating your code base in the next five years." The thing is, this is just pure hype and does not represent reality. After four decades building software, it's just another cycle. I grew up through a large swath of the computerization and digitization of civilization. What's going on now is indeed revolutionary. But no more so than the advancement of computers from punchcard driven monstrosities taking up entire floors to handheld smartphones that bring you live captioning with amazingly accurate and robust speech to text capabilities. We've seen the programming languages advance from machine language to Assembler to C and Pascal to Smalltalk to Tcl/Perl to PHP, Ruby, and beyond. We've seen how we write code go from punchcards to VI to IDEs to snippets to code completion to AI generating fully functioning blocks of code. Sensational headlines are just that. They grab everyone's attention and spark a large run on venture capital funding. Thousands of businesses spring up, compete, then die. Remember the fall of IBM? Remember the dot-com bust in the 2000's? Yup, here we go again! From a pragmatic point of view, AI generating code is just yet another tool in the software engineer's toolbox. Like the evolution of the axe to saw to chainsaw for speeding up the chore of cutting wood, we get faster with our tools. There will always be those around that build with the hand tools of yesterday and those become craftsmen and artisans in the trade while those adopting the modern tools simply become even better at the jobs they were already good at. Just remember, just because I hand you a power saw to cut wood into nice shapes, doesn't mean you'll necessarily build beautiful, sturdy furniture that is heirloom worthy. Becoming a master at one's craft takes decades of continuous practice. Your tools simply make your job easier and more efficient to perform. Being a master at your craft will be rewarded and raise your value as well as bringing you a great sense of personal satisfaction of a job well-done with unparalleled workmanship. If you love building software and solving problems with computers, go forth and master the craft. Now has never been a more exciting time to jump in with both feet. Leveraging AI in writing code is like having your own private tutor that never sleeps and never complains and will constantly train you.
Software Engineers Worldwide are on notice: "Your job will be replaced by AI generating your code base in the next five years."
The thing is, this is just pure hype and does not represent reality.
After four decades building software, it's just another cycle.
I grew up through a large swath of the computerization and digitization of civilization. What's going on now is indeed revolutionary. But no more so than the advancement of computers from punchcard driven monstrosities taking up entire floors to handheld smartphones that bring you live captioning with amazingly accurate and robust speech to text capabilities.
We've seen the programming languages advance from machine language to Assembler to C and Pascal to Smalltalk to Tcl/Perl to PHP, Ruby, and beyond.
We've seen how we write code go from punchcards to VI to IDEs to snippets to code completion to AI generating fully functioning blocks of code.
Sensational headlines are just that. They grab everyone's attention and spark a large run on venture capital funding. Thousands of businesses spring up, compete, then die. Remember the fall of IBM? Remember the dot-com bust in the 2000's? Yup, here we go again!
From a pragmatic point of view, AI generating code is just yet another tool in the software engineer's toolbox. Like the evolution of the axe to saw to chainsaw for speeding up the chore of cutting wood, we get faster with our tools. There will always be those around that build with the hand tools of yesterday and those become craftsmen and artisans in the trade while those adopting the modern tools simply become even better at the jobs they were already good at.
Just remember, just because I hand you a power saw to cut wood into nice shapes, doesn't mean you'll necessarily build beautiful, sturdy furniture that is heirloom worthy. Becoming a master at one's craft takes decades of continuous practice. Your tools simply make your job easier and more efficient to perform. Being a master at your craft will be rewarded and raise your value as well as bringing you a great sense of personal satisfaction of a job well-done with unparalleled workmanship.
If you love building software and solving problems with computers, go forth and master the craft. Now has never been a more exciting time to jump in with both feet. Leveraging AI in writing code is like having your own private tutor that never sleeps and never complains and will constantly train you.
