Sleepless nights due to AI
In the last few months I have not written a single line of code. We use cursor or claude code for everything. Fixing bugs, refactoring, planning for new features it doesn't matter. We start by discussing various approaches with AI. Finalizing one and implementing. Recently the newer models barely make any mistakes. We usually review every single line written by AI but it feels no longer required. AI has definitely started writing better code than me in most cases. How long before we are no longer required. How long before the product manager can completely implement the product themselves. This is giving many sleepless nights. Software engineering is the only skill I have. What will I do If it becomes obsolete.
One interview, 1000+ job opportunities
Take a 10-min AI interview to qualify for numerous real jobs auto-matched to your profile 🔑If you think your skills are going to become useless then you need to think who or what can replace your skills. In your post you mention "the product manager can completely implement the product themselves" Do you really believe that the product manager who has zero coding knowledge can build the product on their own ?
With AI, "zero coding knowledge" is whats going to be needed in nearer future is what OP is trying to convey I think, which is kind of true.
@The_Rahul Not right now. But I was talking a year down the line. Maybe they cannot work with the code we currently have. With all the tech debt and complexity. But they won't need to. They can start from scratch and build everything quickly.
If you think software engineering = coding. You only know 10% of the field. Its like saying ocean only contains fishes.
What else is there in software engineering that's not code?
Architecture? Design decisions? Optimizations? Correctness? All of this can be done by AI too. The only part AI is missing is accountability. I.e. finding someone to blame in case things go south.
"AI has definitely started writing better code than me in most cases." I think this statement is biased though. It's because without realising, you are writing a better prompt.
If you are friends with a PM or have access to a friend who's smart but not a software engineer, you can try an experiment.
You take a fairly complex task from your work, and then you both implement it. Use AI.
Then you compare both results. If you feel like their version was better, then you can start having sleepless nights instead of now. Because otherwise you are irreplaceable by other PMs or non SDEs but that doesn't make you irreplaceable by a better SDE yet.
Might be true currently. I might be better at promoting than a PM. But learning to prompt is much easier than learning to code.
Gvmt will start UBI. Nothing to worry. We area country of freebies. Married people have better benefits. If we belong to the right caste/religion, even more benefits.
But the AI disruption is real the gvmt has for the last two focussed on giving loans for setting up small business like crazy. If you wish to start a business but didn't know where or what businyjust log into a gvmt site, you can easily get an idea. Not just an idea, seed money as well.
I guess if we have to live on freebies then we will need to severely cut our lifestyle. Currently lot of us have major spending like child education, home loans etc. we will need to forfeit all this. I will not be easy.
For the AI to work well people have to become excellent in prompt plus they still need to have basic understanding of coding. I have a personal experience. I being not a coder tried automating a UI with python. Although I didn’t need to set up my initial structure, I started struggling as soon as the code couldn’t click the item I wanted. I kept giving Claude the issue, it rectified but it still didn’t click what I wanted. Then I went to an actual developer and they figured it out in 10 mins. So my practical lesion taught that I who has very basic coding understanding can write code with the help of an AI but I have in depth knowledge on the application. Like what each button performs. However, I am still not as good as someone who is proficient in coding. My take is humans won’t get replaced but there are two possibility which I think might happen.
- Less people to do the same work.(or)
- More people hired to produce more product to reach demands faster.
On the other hand, we're solving problems. Not just writing code to build software.