| I suggest you ignore the AI hype. The nonstop media coverage and announcements prop up an investment bubble. LLMs cannot replace programmers yet and based on what I’ve seen they won’t get to that point anytime soon, if ever. Some companies will try because programmers cost a lot and the process of software development can look unpredictable and expensive to managers. I have seen threats like this come and go before — low code/no code, offshoring, packaged software. I’ve already been through two “AI winters” in my career. LLMs can (barely) write working code given the right prompts and someone examining and testing the output, but writing code only describes part of the work professional programmers do. LLMs can’t solve business problems or participate in the team and organization to multiply the skills and experience needed to implement complex solutions. If managers could describe requirements in sufficient detail without ambiguity LLMs might work for some simple tasks, but I have almost never seen that in practice — when was the last time you got complete, consistent, and unambiguous requirements? LLMs will likely top out before they can replace anything but the most rote jobs because they just regurgitate training data. And the cost of high-end AI will likely approach the cost of human programmers before AI outperforms people in meaningful tasks. So don’t worry about that. Management may use AI as an excuse to reduce labor costs and keep the remaining staff scared but I think that strategy will ultimately fail as they realize LLMs/AI don’t really do the same job as professional programmers. I also live in a foreign country, and I don’t speak the language fluently. I’m ok with that, I actually enjoy the “soft fog of incomprehension” as novelist Lawrence Osborne put it. Every day I feel curious and interested, living in a culture and language I don’t understand. I make the effort to talk to people, at least one stranger every day, and I’ve made friends that way. I know it sounds trite, but remind yourself that you experience emotions and feelings in your mind. Those don’t happen to you out of your control. You can’t change the world or other people but you can adapt and change how you react and feel. Reframe “I am lonely” or “This job burns me out” as “I feel lonely” and “I feel burned out” so you can act on those feelings and how you react to the world. |
This made me cry/laugh. Very astute.