[dynamodispatch]

> No AI can decide _what_ to build

Honestly, programmers don't decide either. We build what we are told to build.

> Could it be made better? Of course! Most of it is terrible. There's an infinite amount of work to be done.

Of course, if our objective it to achieve perfection, then there will always be more things to do because we can never achieve perfection. But most of the time "good enough" is good enough.

But I agree with that AI won't be taking programming jobs anytime soon. But AI will certainly put pressure on the number of jobs and wages. As you said, "smart" compilers, debuggers, code analyzer, etc helps increase productivity. But sooner or later, it will eventually hit demand for programmers.

We are living in the golden age of tech. So it's hard to imagine it ever stopping. I think the biggest concern is the wages and prospects. As more and more people get into programming and as the profession gets more and more productive ( AI, tools ), it's inevitable that wages will stall and decline. Hopefully, just not in my lifetime.

[quonn]

Not everyone is told what to build. I‘m generally not. There is some direction and sometimes I implement specific features that were requested. Even then there is a huge gap between the need to have the feature and the nitty gritty details - and I‘m not even talking about implementation details.

[ericmcer]

Judging by how impacted CS programs are at colleges, and how hard working the interns I have been seeing come through my company lately, wages may be stalling sooner than you think.

Like many other skilled occupations in this country the future is probably going to be very highly paid elite workers and masses of low paid people who are just "good". Kind of inevitable in a capitalist society where human labor is losing its value.

[closeparen]

A massive increase in programming labor physically won’t fit in the Bay Area’s housing stock, and the industry already could have slashed costs anytime it wanted by hiring in the Midwest and South.

[Noumenon72]

I don't know how "impacted" CS programs are and I don't know how hard working your interns are, so I can't make out what you mean in the first sentence.

[EliRivers]

Honestly, programmers don't decide either. We build what we are told to build.

If only. If the people doing that telling could elucidate clearly enough what it was that they wanted built, they'd be programmers (or, to be fair, requirements gurus - I have worked in a company that had someone really, really good with requirements; it was the only place I've ever worked in which the customer never reported a single bug).