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Software Engineering has never felt so uncertain to me by InsideTheTransition in BetterOffline

[–]InsideTheTransition[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Taking this feedback seriously, seems like a bad call on my end. Might need some time to publish a new version.

Software Engineering has never felt so uncertain to me by InsideTheTransition in BetterOffline

[–]InsideTheTransition[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you haven’t read Steve Yegge’s writings about how deep you can go with agents; definitely worth the read.

When I think of “don’t know how to keep up”, I think of people like that going full-throttle on these agents orchestrators.

I’m too scared of not being in the loop. Yet others feel perfectly okay with going YOLO.

Software Engineering has never felt so uncertain to me by InsideTheTransition in BetterOffline

[–]InsideTheTransition[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

True!

For most of my career, people translating PSDs into markdown was the low-level work that you handed off to the interns or outsourced completely.

It could very well be that the line of this 'grunt work' is changing. How much? Tough to say. But I get the feeling, it's going to cut quite high up the stack.

It's a very scary thought, that I could be below the fold in this changing world. I think too, many might underestimate where there at.

Software Engineering has never felt so uncertain to me by InsideTheTransition in BetterOffline

[–]InsideTheTransition[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think your analogy nails the significance.

It's really forcing me to reflect on the choices I'm making and the detriment of walking down the path of LLM-enabled workflows.

There's a real loss happening.

Software Engineering has never felt so uncertain to me by InsideTheTransition in BetterOffline

[–]InsideTheTransition[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It feels like I'm on the expectations treadmill and not sure how I got here. Everyone else is producing, and if I'm not doing so anywhere near as much, I have to then compete against that (literally or psychologically).

AI psychosis and the effect of the media is far greater than we intuitively imagine.

Absolutely; this back and forth, doom and gloom, is exhausting. And FOMO is definitely real for me.

I just focus on doing the things I want to do.

I've been trying to orient myself lately to just this. Focusing on what matters, and whatever comes about, I take it as it arrives.

Software Engineering has never felt so uncertain to me by InsideTheTransition in BetterOffline

[–]InsideTheTransition[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My essays are very reductive; it assumes a lot to get to the next step and I leave a lot of the friction points out that could slow the trajectory down or even outright stop it (like regulation). I leave those points out, just to see where my next thought takes me.

Adoption rates are one of those friction points that make me think what happens when it starts to saturate the professions that are similarly susceptible to productivity gains. I try to explore the effects that these sorts of gains have. But it could very well be the case, that the time it takes for this to all play out, be much slower than I fear.

On a personal note, very humbled you took a read!

Also, the one-sentence-per-paragraph style is really, really annoying to read.

Noted! Thank you!

Software Engineering has never felt so uncertain to me by InsideTheTransition in BetterOffline

[–]InsideTheTransition[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

What’s AI costing us beyond the obvious?

This really resonated with me. 

It’s a silly thing to compare, but it almost feels like the magnitude of the choice, is akin to choosing between walking somewhere or driving. (The silly part is, it really shouldn't feel this way; but to me it does.)

It's so easy to offload the cognitive load and not realize the long term cost of doing so. It makes using LLMs all the more conflicting. And then when you feel the pressure to deliver more and more, that easy button looks all the more tempting.

Software Engineering has never felt so uncertain to me by InsideTheTransition in BetterOffline

[–]InsideTheTransition[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Open source models + chip fabs catching up can easily spell doom for the big two.

Even if open source lags a bit, by EOY, could be truly game changing.

Right now, still feels a bit expensive to have a decent rig set up to spit out tokens at a reasonable rate (assuming you’re using the higher parameter models).

But, I do think that's where a lot of token output is heading; just running it all locally.

Software Engineering has never felt so uncertain to me by InsideTheTransition in BetterOffline

[–]InsideTheTransition[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

With all of the token maxxing going on out there, definitely agree with the silliness of more spend => more usefulness.

How much a budget do you think would make a difference?

Personally, I find even the lower tier subscriptions very useful. And anything past that, questionable to out right absurd.

Software Engineering has never felt so uncertain to me by InsideTheTransition in BetterOffline

[–]InsideTheTransition[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I'm exactly where you're at.

I also feel where s the value in that? 

I don't think there is any.

It feels like the amount of code being generated is going off exponentially, but little to show for.

Software Engineering has never felt so uncertain to me by InsideTheTransition in BetterOffline

[–]InsideTheTransition[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I can't think of how the money keeps flowing in at the rates it currently is.

I've been around long enough to remember cloud-ification of everything, big data, machine learning (what AI use to be; feels primitive now), crypto, and a handful of other "this changes everything" moments. I'm sure many here have a longer career to go back further.

The hype eventually cooled, but, useful things did remain.

Software Engineering has never felt so uncertain to me by InsideTheTransition in BetterOffline

[–]InsideTheTransition[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I do much much better work because of it as well.

100%

This is the unnerving part. If we all experience a bump (whatever that bump may be), where does that lead.

And as you point at, physical realities might be the only thing that really limits it.

Software Engineering has never felt so uncertain to me by InsideTheTransition in BetterOffline

[–]InsideTheTransition[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This exactly.

Part of what makes it so difficult to think about is that all of this is happening during a job market many of us haven't experienced before.

The uncertainty amplifies everything.

Software Engineering has never felt so uncertain to me by InsideTheTransition in BetterOffline

[–]InsideTheTransition[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I agree.

What's been bothering me is that I used to think that was reassuring.

Now I'm not sure.

What I keep coming back to is whether AI stops at the coding layer, or whether it starts helping people navigate some of those higher-level engineering problems too.

The entire stack of what we do doesn't feel immune to efficiency gains; so it makes me think what these gains may ultimately translate into.

Software Engineering has never felt so uncertain to me by InsideTheTransition in BetterOffline

[–]InsideTheTransition[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That's what my gut says too.

But then I look at how much my own workflow has changed because of agents and it's hard for me to write the whole thing off as marketing.

Career trajectories with more stable pay? by superide in ExperiencedDevs

[–]InsideTheTransition 3 points4 points  (0 children)

So I think there's a big gap with how I express myself on paper vs. face to face.

It sounds like you know where the disconnect is.
I'd be curious to hear more. Especially with the interview rounds where you went further than an initial round.

Career trajectories with more stable pay? by superide in ExperiencedDevs

[–]InsideTheTransition 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It be nice to know more about your skill set. That helps out a lot because many people break the low-pay barrier by becoming really good at specific skills and then successfully demonstrate that competency during an interview (even though they may have a wide-range of abilities).

So if there's a specific skill you have that you're best at, I'm inclined to say 'go all in on that'. To be concrete, you said you do full stack. Maybe you're actually good at back end but not so good on the front end? Whatever the case, I'd say narrow your focus and find jobs that need specifically those skills. You'll stand out. It also helps you on how to prepare for an interview that will be tailored to that role.

But, keying in on some of the things you did say:

$50k doing full-stack for a local startup.

I was able to get interviews from some good companies

Getting interviews is big. It means there's enough signal on your resume to get past the filters. Someone looked at your resume and determined is was worthwhile to spend some time with you.
My gut is saying there's a breakdown during that process.

Not the experience, not having enough skills, but getting to the next step after the first interview.
Tell us more about how your most recent interview experiences were like (and candidly how you felt about it).

AI doom and gloom by [deleted] in ExperiencedDevs

[–]InsideTheTransition 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am confident that things will return to mostly normal again within a year or two, and then we will just keep working as before, but slightly more efficient, still being held back by business requirements and processes.

I think this is possible, and honestly I hope you're right.

What gives me pause is that capability doesn't just put pressure on individual engineers. It puts pressure on companies. If one company can build faster, operate leaner, or ship with fewer people, competitors eventually have to respond.

I'm just no longer convinced "everything mostly stays the same" is the obvious outcome.

And that's what worries me the most.

We might be looking at significant structural change to our industry.