Welder by trade here; although I'd rather get paid to spout my opinion on pictures and music, I know that (1) my profession has deep and noble roots going back as far as Hephaestus, and (2) I will never need to go more than a week or so without work.
- I think there's a difference between folks that love coding and view it as nearly an art form vs those that believed it was a quick way to make a buck. I'll compare this to artists who will continue to paint regardless of the amount of readily available AI slop.
A little bit of friendly pushback: while I think your prescription and advice are good, I think this glosses over the very wide variety of "coder" and tech jobs.
Not all of these jobs are the same. For one thing, many of these jobs involve skills that have nothing to do with actual coding. They might have heavy components of project management or architectural planning.
There's a big difference between running Kubernetes or Docker clusters at a large scale (still plenty of open jobs, and more opening up every day!) and becoming a JavaScript web developer who is easily replaced by LLM-generated blocks of slop code (yeah, not a great career path if that's what we're talking about).
I don't deny the general trend, though. I just think that not all of these jobs are going to go extinct, at least not anytime soon. Humans still need to do the debugging and architecting.
I’ve lived many careers, and am now “learning to code,” which I find fulfilling and energizing. If I understand you correctly, you’re rejecting the anticipatory and assuming attitude espoused by STEM boosters in the 2010s, not the actual craft of building good software?
Welder by trade here; although I'd rather get paid to spout my opinion on pictures and music, I know that (1) my profession has deep and noble roots going back as far as Hephaestus, and (2) I will never need to go more than a week or so without work.
Great article. Two nitpicks:
- I think there's a difference between folks that love coding and view it as nearly an art form vs those that believed it was a quick way to make a buck. I'll compare this to artists who will continue to paint regardless of the amount of readily available AI slop.
- One time travel proof profession you forgot. Accounting! For shame 🤣 https://accountingfoundation.org/page/PageContent?pageId=/accounting-and-standards/accounting-standards/history-of-accounting.html
Thanks again, this was a great read
And nun or religious sister -though not jobs still have job security and ample learning opportunities.
Pure delight. Thank you.
A little bit of friendly pushback: while I think your prescription and advice are good, I think this glosses over the very wide variety of "coder" and tech jobs.
Not all of these jobs are the same. For one thing, many of these jobs involve skills that have nothing to do with actual coding. They might have heavy components of project management or architectural planning.
There's a big difference between running Kubernetes or Docker clusters at a large scale (still plenty of open jobs, and more opening up every day!) and becoming a JavaScript web developer who is easily replaced by LLM-generated blocks of slop code (yeah, not a great career path if that's what we're talking about).
I don't deny the general trend, though. I just think that not all of these jobs are going to go extinct, at least not anytime soon. Humans still need to do the debugging and architecting.
Can you please direct me to the spy college? Many thanks. Or do I need to say a code phrase? "Is Mr. Sparrow joining us for dinner?"
I’ve lived many careers, and am now “learning to code,” which I find fulfilling and energizing. If I understand you correctly, you’re rejecting the anticipatory and assuming attitude espoused by STEM boosters in the 2010s, not the actual craft of building good software?
"dairymaid" and "spy" are top of my list
Reading artsy types crap on STEM types is just as obnoxious as the reverse. They always reveal a startling lack of awareness.
How can you claim a job is useless or going away if you don’t even know what it is!
By your logic there was no point in Gutenberg setting up his press…
You need to be a T-shaped professional to succeed. Go deep on Spy, but make sure you know the basics of Midwife, Librarian, and Hairdresser.
Going T-shaped is the answer IMO. It took me a long time to understand what this really meant and looked like.