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True true, most likely I agree, that programmers will still be needed for the time being at least. We will most likely just make use of the tool to make us more

True true, most likely I agree, that programmers will still be needed for the time being at least. We will most likely just make use of the tool to make us more productive and easier programming may disappear. Perhaps people who nowadays make a living on making small websites for small mom- and pop-shops will replace themselves with an AI and they will mostly care about design instead. They will have more time on other stuff, increasing the quality all over. That said, it's hard to tell either way. The future is hard to predict, I wouldn't have guessed I could generate the amount we now can just one year ago. It's hard to imagine many years of progress and what that could potentially lead to.

gregjor 4y ago
People who make web sites for mom and pop businesses got obsoleted a long time ago by WordPress and Shopify and numerous other out-of-the-box solutions. Why does anyone doing that kind of work still get jobs? Ignorance plays some part, of course. In my experience a lot of business owners believe they are unique and special and need something “custom.” It’s a status thing as best I can tell. Back in the ‘90s I started refusing to write custom accounting systems for customers because QuickBooks could do everything they needed until they graduated to the big leagues, where enterprise software solutions dominate. They never listened, always sure they were too different to use something as pedestrian as accounting software in a box. Programmers aren’t immune. Look at all of the functionally equivalent languages and tools we argue about. Notice programmers writing that they can’t use an IDE or web site that doesn’t have dark mode. How many more “to do list” apps will we endure? Freud called it “the narcissism of small differences.” The same human tendency explains why we have many more cars available than Toyota Camrys and Ford F-150s.

gregjor 4y ago

People who make web sites for mom and pop businesses got obsoleted a long time ago by WordPress and Shopify and numerous other out-of-the-box solutions. Why does anyone doing that kind of work still get jobs? Ignorance plays some part, of course. In my experience a lot of business owners believe they are unique and special and need something “custom.” It’s a status thing as best I can tell. Back in the ‘90s I started refusing to write custom accounting systems for customers because QuickBooks could do everything they needed until they graduated to the big leagues, where enterprise software solutions dominate. They never listened, always sure they were too different to use something as pedestrian as accounting software in a box. Programmers aren’t immune. Look at all of the functionally equivalent languages and tools we argue about. Notice programmers writing that they can’t use an IDE or web site that doesn’t have dark mode. How many more “to do list” apps will we endure? Freud called it “the narcissism of small differences.” The same human tendency explains why we have many more cars available than Toyota Camrys and Ford F-150s.