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by Cthulhu_ 60 days ago
Look no further to be honest; look at older generation programming languages like COBOL and how sought-after good developers for that language are.

But I'm also afraid / certain that LLMs are able to figure out legacy code (as long as enough fits in their context window), so it's tenuous at best.

Also, funny you mentioned HTML / CSS because for a while (...in the 90's / 2000's) it looked like nobody needed to actually learn those because of tools like Dreamweaver / Frontpage.
5 comments
raw_anon_1111 60 days ago
The whole “you can make a lot of money programming in COBOL” is one of those myths that needs to die.

Even the briefest of Google searches show they make around the same as any other enterprise dev if not slightly less.

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Max-q 60 days ago
The issue with COBOL code is that it’s hidden. It’s mostly internal systems so little code available for training. HTML, TypeScript, JavaScript, C, etc, are readily available, billions of code lines.
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prox 60 days ago
Well, on the 2nd paragraph, I have no illusion they’ll figure out more as they are being trained. I am more thinking of the custodians (as coders turn into that)

Say you are a good coder now, but you are becoming a custodian, checking the llm work will slowly erode your skills. Maybe if you got a good memory or an amazing skillset it might be some time, but if you don’t use it, you lose it.

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ipaddr 60 days ago
COBOL developers are sought after but still paid less than a grad doing crud. Is that the future?
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solenoid0937 59 days ago
How are COBOL developers "sought after"? That's an oft-repeated but woefully incorrect meme.

FAANG new grads make more. If the COBOL devs had upskilled throughout their career they'd be Senior Staff/Principal+ and making 5-10x more than they do today.

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