Just to make this clear up front: I was always very skeptical of LLMs (I'll never call them AI) and still see them as fundamentally limited and unreliable. See my post history if you don't believe me.

Having said that: I work in business software and the models have progressed to the point where typing code and writing classes and functions by hand has become uneconomical. We review the output closely to avoid the idiocy of "vibe-coding", but the quality has improved to the point where we rarely have to outright reject solutions. The discussions have moved to high-level architectural points, where we just request better implementations than the first-shot. We get them, review again and move on. Maybe there are deeper, latent problems beeing embedded in the code-base through this process, but we can't spot any although we are looking intently.

And just like that, my profession has died. Nobody in my team writes code anymore. Things that would have taken days are now done in minutes. We are all just considering design and architecture. We are changing our processes since they are not fit for the new way of doing things. Scrum? What's even the point anymore? We can work through a sprint-backlog that would've taken two weeks in two days now. We do reviews 90% of the time. When we request changes they come back in minutes.

I have a feeling like the ground has been taken from below me. My son wanted to become a developer, that isn't a real job anymore. Everyone around me feels the same way, including our management. We are a small team and a small company, everyone is effective and our jobs are not in danger as long as our product is succesful. But my profession is essentially dead. It's a craft I honed for many, many years and the craft itself is now automated. I wanted to improve my typing skills to code faster, this is now a ridiculous endeavour. We don't know what comes next, but I now only have my analytical skills and knowledge of good architecture to fall back on.

And it all changed so fast. I don't think this will transfer to other professions so easily, but for programming LLMs ended it all in the span of the last four months. I thought I knew what my future holds as a senior dev, now I can barely see past christmas.This is a nightmare.

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[–] 8 points 1 week ago (1 child)

First of all I feel you. I think things have changed for the worse in workplaces across the board thanks to pixel salad generators. They came for writing, graphic design, music and content creation at first. They took all the fun things and made them a nightmare in the workplace. All just so millions can be fired while those who get to keep a job have to lower their standards to an absurd degree just to stay competitive (something I am experiencing currently). Big tech's pivot towards coding was very predictable. It makes sense for big tech that has spent so much money on the tech to put their own employees on the chopping block quickly. They need to save costs at any cost after all. I am sure this will come back to bite them in the backside but I doubt they care about that right now.

At least you acknowledge that quintupling your output when not even writing code yourself anymore will result in mass layoffs eventually. Some developers I know have been too excited about never writing anything anymore to see the writing on the wall. One friend happily told me about how Claude does all the tedious work from now on. Days later he was laid off and didn't even seem surprised. It took him only days to go from euphoria to "oh wait, I am in danger..." to losing his job and accepting it with a shrug. He was a junior dev mind you, but things are moving fast and that should have everyone concerned when big tech's motto has been "be fast, break things" for the better part of two decades. Look where it has gotten us.

The bubble(s) will pop, regulations will come in some shape or form but right now we're all fighting an existential fight against the machines. No regulations will give you back your old job or your old paycheck. When they're gone, they will probably be gone for good.

I wish I could end this on a positive note but all I can say is take care of yourself and seek fulfillment anywhere but the workplace if you haven't already. If you're not replaced by the machine then you will have to keep working with the machine that replaced your coworkers. Either way it's a shit sandwich.

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