Basically true – AI is another major step in the long evolution of software development from machine coding to assembly language to compilers and interpreters to now using “chat development”: The End of Programming as We Know It – O’Reilly
Without stating it outright, the essay (it’s good) explains why software careers are typically shorter than many other professional fields – due to the pace of change, experience in technologies that are now obsolete does not add value:
AI will not replace programmers, but it will transform their jobs. Eventually much of what programmers do today may be as obsolete (for everyone but embedded system programmers) as the old skill of debugging with an oscilloscope. Master programmer and prescient tech observer Steve Yegge observes that it is not junior and mid-level programmers who will be replaced but those who cling to the past rather than embracing the new programming tools and paradigms. Those who acquire or invent the new skills will be in high demand. Junior developers who master the tools of AI will be able to outperform senior programmers who don’t.
A bright software developer can, due to project assignments, spend years working on a particular technology – only to discover that technology has been surpassed by something new and shiny. Stuck on the old project, they fell behind – while the new kids on the block just spent the past 2-3 years working on the new tech and are now 2-3 years ahead of the more senior developer.
There is no good solution to this, unfortunately. If one’s career path does not thread along the changing path, you will end up at an end point where it may difficult to catch up – and marks the beginning of the end of one’s career.
