> Why can't LLMs and agents progress further to do this software engineering job better than an actual software engineer?
Because a machine can never take accountability. If a software engineer throughout the entire year has been directing AI with prompts that created weaker systems then that person is on the chopping block, not the AI. Compared to another software engineer who directed prompts to expand the system and generate extra revenue streams.
> Because a machine can never take accountability.
A business leader can though.
> Compared to another software engineer who directed prompts to expand the system and generate extra revenue streams.
I think you're missing the point. Why can't an LLM advance sufficiently to be a REAL senior software engineer that a business person/product manager is prompting instead of YOU, a software engineer? Why are YOU specifically needed if an LLM can do a better job of it than you? I can't believe people are so naive to not see what the endgame is: getting rid of those primadonna software engineers that the C-suite and managers have nothing but contempt for.
If a 'business leader' is prompting out software through their agents, ensuring it works, maintaining it, and taking accountability... they're also a software engineer
By this definition, pre-LLM "business leaders" circa 2008 with not even an understanding of Excel were already "software engineers" this whole time - just prompting out software through their meatspace agents, instead of their silicon ones.
Dismissal of arguments as "just semantics" is high school level argumentation.
clearly not the same when they were abstracted from the realities of building software and.. directly taking accountability for it!
by semantics, i mean the definition and pool of tasks, responsibilities, and outcomes a job is comprised of is shifting so fast that the borders of what is a 'software engineer' and 'business person' are melding together. software engineers are business people in their own way
I don't understand why humans abstract a business leader away from the realities of building software, while LLMs do not.
If the rhetoric is to be believed, the set of responsibilities falling to the role of "software engineer" is shrinking to zero, and all engineers are being forcibly "promoted" to the managerial class of shepherding around agents.
i would say theres more nuance than that (disclaimer: dont have a crystal ball)
software engineers who are comfortable doing business work - managing, working with different stakeholders, having product and design taste, being sociable, driving business outcomes are going to be more desired than ever
likewise, business leads who can be technical, can decompose vague ideas into product, leverage code to prototype and work with the previous person will also be extremely high value.
i would be concerned if i was an engineer with no business acumen or a business lead with no technical acumen (not counting CEOs obviously, but then again the barrier to starting your own business as a SWE has never been lower)
It's funny, that's why COBOL was originally developed in 1960: so that business people could write software themselves without needing software engineers. And it sort of worked, to an extent. History repeats itself.
Between then and now, what ever happened to "no code development" or whatever they called it, where all of the world's APIs could be connected with lines in a diagram?
That's how things work already in every workplace where there's any real danger. The companies construes its policies and paper trail in bad faith so that the employees are always operating contradictory to policy/training and then when something happens blame can be shifted on them.
It's funny how we see some people who claim to have "taste" walking around in public wearing horrible Balenciaga shoes. Are they really just tasteless, or are they doing it ironically to troll the rest of us? I guess we'll never know. Maybe someday AI robots will achieve the same level.
I don’t see how the author isn’t embarrassed. Maybe it’s just me having imposter syndrome or maybe I can self reflect, maybe. If he used AI to slop all those articles up doesn’t he know any developer can use AI to get that content through the IDE? He’s trying to game something with a tool that effectively killed off that game in the first place.
I’m a south asian guy so I’ll just say it. I’m not surprised anymore when a lot of scammy/scummy behavior turns out to be done by a south asian.
In sf too most of the scammers and scummy founders are south asian.
It’s gross and honestly as a south asian doing something legit it sucks to see them just fulfilling a stereotype.
These assholes are the same types responsible for why those societies are fucked up, being in SF most south asians I’ve met are from super wealthy families there that exploit people. Not surprising their new generation is exploiting too.
Downvote me if that upsets you but someone’s gotta call it out.
I appreciate you for saying that. It's something we're going to have to deal with, high trust societies institutions getting eroded by these types of people only interested in getting theirs.
What particularly bugs me about this, is the made up white man to paint as the slop author.
Cash App is probably the biggest. I was surprised how many gen z people I talked to say they use cash app for everything from direct deposit to their tax returns.
Because a machine can never take accountability. If a software engineer throughout the entire year has been directing AI with prompts that created weaker systems then that person is on the chopping block, not the AI. Compared to another software engineer who directed prompts to expand the system and generate extra revenue streams.
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