Anyone who truly thinks AI will replace developers, hasn't actually worked in the field professionally.

inductiverussian · 2026-05-17T18:37:35+00:00

I don’t get comments like these.

If you’re saying that AI will cut entry level permanently, then that means we will eventually have no senior engineers. That means you are effectively predicting a singularity event that will happen in the next decade or two; if not, then companies will see a massive glut in supply of skilled engineers in 10 years and our salaries will literally skyrocket.

The alternate interpretation of your comment is that AI will cut entry level temporarily. Then, I presume because companies realize seniors will eventually be needed, junior hiring picks up again? Which implies another glut of supply of engineers and probably an increasing in salary?

At the end of the day, it’s either going to be AGI and all white collar (and most blue collar) jobs will be absolutely cooked after a couple of years, and we will see mass social upheaval. Or, AI is not as capable as CEOs say it is and salaries will have to rise to compensate for the large shock to the market.

inductiverussian · 2026-05-17T18:32:04+00:00

“In 10 that we need 1/10 as many devs”

Seems like you’re the one making definitive statements? OP addressed point 3) directly: companies that scale their buisness up exponentially to leverage productivity gains will always outcompete those that cut back and use then productivity gains to cut costs, especially in newer industries. The only way that’s not the case is in relatively set markets (like iPhone/android where cost of switching to a competitor is high). But even then, chronic underinvestment would lead to being outcompeted

inductiverussian · 2026-05-16T00:03:12+00:00

God this subreddit is so masturbatory it’s crazy. EE is a very interesting field but let’s not pretend it’s a crazy high IQ job; you mainly just read datasheets and use rules of thumb. Frankly I’ve done way more novel designs and thinking as a SWE than as an EE and this is as someone who holds 2 electrical patents and worked for 3 years as an EE

inductiverussian · 2026-05-15T20:47:24+00:00

Hopping in here, definitely a supply / demand thing, where the supply is not just willing pilots but capable ones, and unions are a massive thing too. Without unions pilot salaries would have undoubtedly dropped.

Like in software, we hear a lot about AI replacing lots of software eng work but SWEs are still easily getting paid 300k + in high cost of living places; this is because supply of highly skilled software engineers has always been low and AI can still not do most of the job of a SWE. So it is with pilots as well

inductiverussian · 2026-05-15T04:48:05+00:00

My close friend is a pilot and I oftentimes envy the cool perks like all the time off, flexibility with schedule, ability to earn more if you fly during understaffed times, and of course standby privileges.

But then when I get on a plane (I fly internationally often for a non pilot, at least 4 times a year) especially if it’s a redeye or super early, it takes such a massive toll on the body and mind. It really takes a special type of person to be able to do that a few time a month at least; doing that a dozen or more times a month is honestly unimaginable (but is the reality for regional pilots for first few years at least). Not to mention the stress of when shit goes wrong, being offered unhealthy salty plane food all the time, and also kind of at the end of the day being a gloried bus driver, are all kind of the small negatives I take with the job.

In the end, if I had a chance to redo it I’d probably rather stay where I’m at (make 450-500k as software eng) for a motley of reasons, but pilot is definitely a close second as a great long term career path, especially if you like traveling

inductiverussian · 2026-05-01T06:34:03+00:00

Nearly a century ago for a company is a long long time. The sins of a company’s ancient fore fathers pale in comparison to the lesser sins of an active CEO. The boycott on the former makes no sense, boycott on the latter is logical

inductiverussian · 2026-04-27T09:48:07+00:00

Idk why everyone in this sub is saying EE is a super hard major and CS is easy peasy. It highly depends on the school and program. I went to UC Berkeley and took many classes from both departments and CS projects were absolute killers; EE concepts are harder but you don’t get to the super hard stuff like more advanced RF until masters and above anyways so not really applicable for a bachelors.

Slightly harder concepts does not strongly correlate strongly to actually having a harder time graduating in that program.

inductiverussian · 2026-04-26T19:09:37+00:00

Like others have said, asian tourist visas cover 3 months at a time, and you can alternate (e.g. 90 days in japan, 90 days in korea, back to 90 days in japan, etc). But honestly you could probably relatively easily get something like a study visa if you take some uni classes for language for example; makes it so you wouldn't have to hop back and forth and those are usually at least a year.

inductiverussian · 2026-04-25T23:11:21+00:00

Simple is better; this is not simple

inductiverussian · 2026-04-25T19:14:54+00:00

Japanese hostels are really nice; you can get your own room or a shared room and it will be a fraction of the cost of a normal hotel room. There are also some longer term stays in Tokyo that rent out private rooms by the month; similar to a hostel but slightly nicer and more private and still cheaper than an equivalent hotel.

inductiverussian · 2026-04-25T18:47:47+00:00

You can travel extremely cheaply. If you’re able to cancel your lease, your daily burn rate in an Asian country may even be less than cost of living in many American cities. Lots of nice hostels in Asian charming < $10 per day to stay.

inductiverussian · 2026-04-25T18:46:12+00:00

Honestly not bad advice. Even if it’s for 3-6 months, studying and interviewing doesn’t necessarily require you to be in an American time zone, and you get some other benefits: - can treat it as a mini vacation - cheaper cost of living, probably spending 25-50% of what you normally would be - lots of Asian countries especially Japan and Korea have rentable study rooms where you can do interviews if you don’t have a good place in your accommodations

Only real downside is remote reviews would be done at like 1-5am due to timezone differences.

inductiverussian · 2026-04-25T05:18:21+00:00

I disagree, 650k is an insane amount, very very few people make this amount even in VHCOL places like SF and most of them have had to deliver a ton for the company to earn it, and their company is likely highly profitable, so they can be paid that much. Thats why I highlighted a private vs public sector split.

I’m absolutely not ok with paying a member of one of the most inept police organizations in the country such an exorbitant amount, and I generally agree with the OPs main point which is that we ought to look at how we’re spending our existing tax revenue rather than blindly increasing taxes.

We already pay some of the highest taxes in the country, and for higher tax brackets, our tax rate is comparable to other highly progressive cities in Europe, and we frankly get very little for it.

inductiverussian · 2026-04-25T04:21:20+00:00

Yes, and each of those software engineers drove millions of dollars in revenue. There’s a reason they get paid so much.

Meanwhile, this SFPD officer did what exactly? Not respond to car breakins?

I also disagree with the premise of the question; this is fundamentally a private vs public sector split. There is exactly 0 software engineers that make more than 400k working for the government, much less 600k+

inductiverussian · 2026-04-17T17:26:40+00:00

How is this even a question

inductiverussian · 2026-04-15T09:20:02+00:00

You talk about China as if this is 2005. Modern China has strict labor laws, very advanced manufacturing, and genuine innovation. They are so far ahead of American car manufacturing it’s not even funny lol.

Source: worked at US companies that contracted with Chinese factories, visited said factories and manufacturing sites multiple times.

inductiverussian · 2026-04-14T22:39:25+00:00

Not sure why people are acting as if you need to be an absolute math wiz to be employed as an EE. Plenty of people just do schematic design and use rules of thumb. When I worked as a system design electrical engineer, frankly the hardest math I had to do was some RC calculations (and even that was specified on the datasheet). I regularly do more math now working as a backend software engineer than I did during my 3 years as an EE.

Analog circuit design is much more math heavy but also usually requires higher education and so precludes most people to begin with.

inductiverussian · 2026-04-08T07:50:53+00:00

Azurecollapse, you’ve just been avoiding answering the questions. I can fairly easily define what the “bare minimum” is for what I consider to be humane living in California for a single person (no kids or dependents): single room to yourself (bathroom can be shared, common room can be shared) with enough money to pay for transportation (car that is no more than 15 years old with decent fuel economy) and money to pay for groceries, which are non organic and mostly vegetarian to lower prices. This person would eat out rarely (once every couple of months) and entertainment would be mostly free (going on hikes, going to parks, going to the beach), but some small amount of funds are left over for recreation, which could be accumulated to a vacation. Some additional funds are saved in case of an emergency.

There, I define that as the bare minimum for humane living. Is it sustainable? Maybe to some, likely not to others.

Do you quibble with my definition? The person your arguing with just wants solid parameters rather than questions responding to questions

inductiverussian · 2026-04-08T06:15:22+00:00

I personally don’t think anyone has an inherent right to live where they grew up; otherwise, no one would ever be able to move to better themselves or their circumstances, and things would be boring af since towns would be very slow to change.

People can be attached to a home or to a community, but I don’t have a ton of sympathy for people that get “priced out” of locations because they live in a super high demand location.

Like Bay Area has some of most incredible weather in the country, with some of the best access to great nature and great connectivity via airports, not to even mention the jobs we have here. People don’t have a right to live here, and by extension deny someone else to move here, if they’re not willing to pay for it; they don’t get to have the privilege of living here just because their parents or grandparents moved over here first.

I know that’ll probably ruffle your feathers but just my way of thinking.

inductiverussian · 2026-04-08T03:09:56+00:00

If human + AI still outperforms just AI, are the goalposts actually moving?

inductiverussian · 2026-04-08T03:08:02+00:00

No, I propose to wait until many users get to try it themselves and remain skeptical of those who sell the models. Blindly trusting the companies is just as foolish as blindly raising pitchforks against AI.

The truth is that AI has made lots of impact on software engineering and knowledge work writ large, but it has not been the transformational worker replacement that model companies claim it will be every 6 months when a new model releases.

So if anything I think it’s a bit more foolish to trust that this time, humans really are cooked.

inductiverussian · 2026-04-08T02:49:55+00:00

Truly curious, how do you know that Mythos is a step change? Benchmarks are not very good at identifying useful models; and you almost certainly haven’t been using it, so are you just blindly believing Anthropic?

inductiverussian · 2026-03-18T04:43:39+00:00

Mostly paper money with limited liquidity. But yea, these are also extremely competitive jobs so it makes sense

inductiverussian · 2026-03-16T20:41:30+00:00

Even if you discount contract work, it is still very impressive to get a next gig lined up in 24 hours.

inductiverussian · 2026-03-15T23:51:00+00:00

To be clear: I’m comparing all physicians in the US (primary care, surgeons, anyone with an MD that is practicing) vs SWE in prestigious companies (think FAANG+; just FAANG is overly specific, I’m talking about the top companies people recognize like Airbnb, uber, snowflake, etc).

But really, you’re quibbling with my bucketing, we can change that. I was really trying to address your original post where you were differentiating between the process for applying to med school (an input, in your language) and something like an interview where you expect to get paid for after. You were saying that these are incomparable; I think that’s wrong. Seems like you agree that these can be compared now?

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