Comment on So Much for ‘Learn to Code’ - In the age of AI, computer science is no longer the safe major.
varsock@programming.dev 1 year agoI agree with you and share the same opinions.
For discussion sake I will add that, using AI I have became so fast at creating “units of code” or restructuring. I ask it to solve a narrow narrow scope and introduce constraints (like conditional variable and which parameters, initial conditions). And it does. I have the experience validate by reading and to piece together the units of code but now my productivity near tripled.
I don’t write comments anymore. I write what I neeed, ask it to comment the function, maybe I’ll add something that is project specific.
And getting started with new technologies is easier as long as, like you said, keep the scope small.
AI will not replace programmers. Programmers that use AI will replace programmers who don’t.
psivchaz@reddthat.com 1 year ago
I think this is generally true, probably for the rest of my career. I don’t think it is true forever. Asking “what happens when this stops being a career” or at least “what happens when there are less jobs to go around” is important, and something I would rather we all sort out long before I need the answer.
varsock@programming.dev 1 year ago
Valid point. Again for the sake of discussion, technology evolves quickly. New tools are made out of the shortcoming of others. If docker evolves and a new tool - Kocker - is born, AI will need training data from best practices which should be generated by people.
This could unfold in many ways. For one there could a small group of people pushing technology forward. But people will need to be around to create requirements, which takes experience.
More likely, majority of engineers will likely just move up to a higher level of abstraction, letting new tools do the lower layer stuff. And any innovations in the lower levels of abstraction will be done by a small group of people with niche skills (take CPUs for example). This is the trend we saw historically.
Assembly -> compilers -> lower languages -> interpreted languages -> scaling bare metal systems -> distributed systems -> virtual machines -> automation -> micro servicesetc etc