[misswaterfairy]

- The ability and want to learn. I offer the following advice to every firefighter I teach: the day you think or believe you know everything, is the day you quit. (I'm a software dev. by trade with fifteen-odd years experience as an operational firefighter (and still am to this day)).

- Find a domain or two you have an interest (better yet, a passion) in, that isn't IT, and pair your IT skills to it. My day job is (more generally) emergency management, so I pair my geospatial analysis and programming skills to solve problems within the emergency management domain.

I don't think AI will completely take over, simply because of [1], though it will somewhat remove or reduce the need for 'generalists', where much of the workload is handled by AI, at the prompting of a software developer or engineer, much like how many farm hands were replaced by farming machines when they became a thing. That said, I think we're still half a century off AI truly replacing most software developers.

Humans will still be required to 'know what 'good' looks like' and ensure that whatever slop AI spits out actually fixes the problem. This is where domain-specific knowledge is incredibly valuable. See how you can apply your skills to make your interest or passion field better, using AI to your advantage, by exploiting your technical skills with domain-specific knowledge.

Most people think of firefighters as just that - putting out fires. That's only partly true though. We use a shiny, and fast, red toolbox on wheels to solve the problems of others, whether that be (actual) firefighting, rescue, first aid, replacing smoke alarm batteries, engaging with the community, even fixing things. Firefighters now days are closer to problem-solvers than they are firefighters. We just happen to respond to emergency calls too.

Be the problem solver in your domain. AI, in my opinion, won't be able to truly problem solve, or think outside the box, for many decades to come.

[1] https://www.commitstrip.com/en/2016/08/25/a-very-comprehensi...

[mindcrime]

Firefighters now days are closer to problem-solvers than they are firefighters. We just happen to respond to emergency calls too.

I often joke that if a UFO landed in the middle of I-40 outside of Raleigh, the first agency dispatched would be the Fire Department. We're[1] sort of the fallback "do it all" agency that goes to the crazy shit nobody else knows how to handle.

Grass fire? Send the fire department. Car crashed into a building? Send the fire department? Person locked in the police station / courthouse after hours? Send the fire department (taken from an actual incident I overheard last night while monitoring Fire/EMS dispatch in my area). Cow trapped in a ravine? Send the fire department. Apartment flooding? Send the fire department. Mysterious smell in the area? Send the fire department. UFOs? Send the fire department. And so on and on and on...

"All hazards" really is the name of the game these days.

[1]: I say "we" out of habit, even though I'm not on an active roster anywhere at the moment. I mostly gave up firefighting due to the demands of my day job, but I still consider myself a firefighter at heart and may well join up with a volunteer department again some day.

[misswaterfairy]

> "All hazards" really is the name of the game these days.

Absolutely! One of the more recent calls I attended was a 'residential [smoke] alarm sounding', with no further details. Call turned out to be a woman desperate to turn off the water to the house, after a hot water pipe had burst in the kitchen with no other way to turn it off. Not sure how dispatch got 'smoke alarm' from 'hot water pipe', though panicked people tend to do and say bizarre things under obtuse acute stress.

Some digging (the mains tap was burried under a decade's worth of pine needles) and one multi-tool later, we had the water turned off.

> I mostly gave up firefighting due to the demands of my day job, but I still consider myself a firefighter at heart and may well join up with a volunteer department again some day.

The 'job' is very much Hotel California.

Whilst I'm 'career' in my day job (which only turns operational in an incident management sense during the 'on' season), I still regularly volunteer with my local brigade when I can, which isn't much these days unfortunately. We've always said family and work come first, though even an hour or two here and there definitely help, even if its only with odd jobs around the station. It also helps keep one's skills sharp, as monotonous as maintaining BA sets can be, it helps keep the muscle memory exercised.

[kylehotchkiss]

Software developer and firefighter. I love it! I respect the work you do very much, thank you for your service.

[misswaterfairy]

No need to thank me, but thank you.

If you can, and you're willing and able, consider volunteering for your local volunteer department if there's one near by.

You don't need to be the fittest or the strongest (though some fitness is essential), it's much more important these days for a fire service be reflective of the community it serves[1] (NSFW minor adult themes, headphones recommended).

That means more women firefighters, firefighters of colour, short firefighters, tall firefighters, tiny firefighters, stocky firefighters, LGBTQ+ firefighters, religious firefighters, English-second-language firefighters, even techy firefighters, help reflect the community in which they serve.

(And I include our paramedic/EMT brothers and sisters in the word 'firefighter' here, who are just as vital as us).

All of those skills and life experiences are valuable in the fire service today.

[1] https://www.ted.com/talks/bronnie_mackintosh_how_diversity_i...

[dunham]

In Seattle, a software developer / firefighter made this site:

    https://sfdlive.com/

[misswaterfairy]

A firie after my own heart!