[_fw]

I’d love for AI to take my job and free me from the burdensome toil of creating shareholder value.

Not sure it will feed my kids, put a roof over my head and look after me as I age and my body fails me though.

As mentioned below, it’s easy to feel safe and secure when one has the means, independent of their livelihood.

[DrewADesign]

I think many people in tech have existed in a high-demand labor market for so long that they have no idea how much less other job markets reward people for their intelligence, work ethic, knowledge, education, etc. From the very inception of these LLM coding tools, some people predicted this would destroy the dev job market, and others said ‘maybe it will replace other software developers but there’s no way it could replace me,’ seemingly assuming their role would remain largely unchanged, regardless of how the field changed. Now that cavalier attitude has been adopted by the developers who’ve fashioned themselves into ai-wrangling software creators.

Transitioning from software developer to ai-wrangling software creator is a lateral move that’s a lot easier than starting a new career, and if we have a bunch of developers out of work with mortgages to pay and kids to feed, guess what their first attempt will be? And guess what salaries are like in roles with a giant labor surplus? Companies don’t pay people what they’re worth — they pay people what they’ll work for. If you’re looking at a foreclosure notice and no other prospects, or health insurance that costs $1500/mo and your kid has a chronic health condition, you will do a tougher job than your last one for less money than your interns made, and after staring the losing-everything abyss face-to-face, you will feel lucky to have it.

[k1m]

> I think many people in tech have existed in a high-demand labor market for so long that they have no idea how much less other job markets reward people for their intelligence, work ethic, knowledge, education, etc.

Absolutely! It's fascinating that when I discuss the job issue, and how undemocratic and soul-crushing it is for many people, there's this huge chasm between what most workers experience in their jobs, and that small, vocal group of highly paid, in-demand workers, who enjoy a lot of freedom and who've never experienced the other side.

> From the very inception of these LLM coding tools, some people predicted this would destroy the dev job market, and others said ‘maybe it will replace other software developers but there’s no way it could replace me,’ seemingly assuming their role would remain largely unchanged, regardless of how the field changed.

It's fascinating to watch, and it prickles people's egos. If the thing I spent a lot of time learning to do well, and which gave me status and a high salary, can be done easily by a machine, does that mean I'm not special? I saw this tweet from a very experienced developer, Dax Raad, that captures a part of it well I think[1]:

> i used to say programming was creative work

> except LLMs are fine at programming and are literal 0s for more obviously creative work

> i think we mistook enumerating a lot of possibilities and picking one for being creative

[1] https://x.com/thdxr/status/2064705679298896105

[k1m]

My post focused more on trying to question why we value jobs so much, beyond the paychecks they offer. I didn't get into alternatives, but Universal Basic Income (UBI) is what you'll see discussed most often as an alternative. I'm certainly not arguing for taking away people's paychecks and then letting them fend for themselves with nothing to replace it.