There will be consultants. Most will be charlatans with an LLM, but there will always be a small number of people who learn the craft because they’re interested… and they will command high salaries by those who understand quality engineering.

It’s not like this is the first time our society has done this. We did it to textiles, then we did it to farming in general.

The difference here is that automation of thought is what’s being promised, but that’s not what’s being delivered. But then, for many of its applications, real thought was never needed in the first place.

Anyway, back to my actual point: manual software development will become a niche hobby like using a hand loom. The skills will survive, but more as a curiosity than a common career path.

I hope I’m wrong, but it all depends on how long it takes the bubble to burst. If the LLM companies get a critical mass of dependence before it does, this will be the result.