I’ll be surprised if I’m still doing this shit in 20 years. Assuming I can handle the job physically and mentally, I expect AI will soon enable third-world talent (Infosys and friends) to be virtually indistinguishable from domestic talent- all for 1/5 the cost or whatever. When it comes to web app development, I write virtually no code. What’s more, my employer wants it that way. True craftsmen used to be involved in home construction, now it’s day laborers who get things “mostly plumb”, “probably waterproofed”, and “good enough to pass the second inspection”. Anyone who says it won’t happen because “code quality will go down” doesn’t get it. Last time offshoring was in vogue, C Suite was put in its place as production became a dumpster fire and the code base became unrecognizable. Now, AI can just about guarantee code quality- what I struggle with most is sometimes it misunderstands what I’m asking it to do, and that’s totally expected because of how vague we can often be with these prompts.

I think the C Suite at large generally recognizes they don’t need junior devs anymore. How long before they realize they don’t need seniors?