> what keeps you motivated?

Learning new things. Discovering more things about myself. Deepening relationships with other people. Much joy to experience.

> We keep hearing that the latest LLMs are approaching AGI.

A gentle reminder if you keep hearing this, it means AGI hasn't happened and so the accusations that "approaching AGI" become more like "fusion in 50 years" than not bear fruit.

There is no inductive reasoning behind "approaching AGI" simply more agglutinative outcomes, which invite the statement.

The money is still good compared to breaking rocks.

"writing code" is a tiny part of what "a career in software" means. You haven't begun to understand the complexity of systems if you think the code part is the dominant part of this career space.

coding is thinking. coding is systematising. coding is reasoning. coding is optimising over generic or less optimal solutions. coding is understanding the complexities behind problems. coding is problem solving.

you think the "approaching AGI" is going to magically replace all the myriad ways this manifests in one go?

I enjoy automating other people's livelihoods. I also enjoy figuring out clever ways to skirt around legislation, it's a fun exercise. As a hobby, I like to find new ways to collect more data to make surveillance more convenient.

It’s all just cognitive dissonance. Anyone claiming optimism around salaries is just flat wrong. I see non-engineers contributing to production code and it’s simply a matter of time until leadership feels comfortable with downsizing and or lowering salaries.