Ask HN: How can I stop worrying about my future in CS?
4 comments
There are two aspects to software:
1. Employment
2. Building original things.
If you get good at the second one, building things, you can generally find employment. If your primary concern is finding employment you will find yourself chasing resume points that aren't helpful in writing original software.
Also, always look for areas of software with the higher barriers of entry. Those jobs are fewer, but the candidates for those jobs are fewer still. My experience has taught me high barrier of entry jobs tend to be more stable and your peers substantially better qualified. I spent 15 years as a JavaScript developer and while I loved writing JavaScript applications, most people who do that work tend to be very bad at what they do and are extremely insecure about it. Fulfillment in any career comes from building amazing things and working with exceptional people, which you won't get in a low barrier of entry area of software.
1. Employment
2. Building original things.
If you get good at the second one, building things, you can generally find employment. If your primary concern is finding employment you will find yourself chasing resume points that aren't helpful in writing original software.
Also, always look for areas of software with the higher barriers of entry. Those jobs are fewer, but the candidates for those jobs are fewer still. My experience has taught me high barrier of entry jobs tend to be more stable and your peers substantially better qualified. I spent 15 years as a JavaScript developer and while I loved writing JavaScript applications, most people who do that work tend to be very bad at what they do and are extremely insecure about it. Fulfillment in any career comes from building amazing things and working with exceptional people, which you won't get in a low barrier of entry area of software.
[deleted]
Fads like AI come and go. Any argument that AI is going to replace all programmers is based on the notion of indefinite exponential growth,which is something very rare in nature.
Once you get your foot into the door and get put on your first project with consultants and outsourced workers youll start to realise how low the bar actually is.
Any advantages AI gives programmers will be eaten up by jevons paradox.
Once you get your foot into the door and get put on your first project with consultants and outsourced workers youll start to realise how low the bar actually is.
Any advantages AI gives programmers will be eaten up by jevons paradox.
From a pure employment perspective, I think medicine and law probably have higher EV than CS at this point (at least in the USA - not sure about Switzerland). But if you really love programming, then it should be pretty doable to differentiate yourself from the zillions of other CS grads when it comes time to job hunt.
But for several months now (especially since 2025), with the rise of very good LLMs, I have been feeling increasingly anxious. I realized that all the projects I have worked on over the past five years are losing their value. Everything I've done and been proud of can now be done by anyone. I also see a lot of posts on the internet about the future of the job market, and most of them are pessimistic, which has a significant impact on my mental health. I'm losing my motivation and trying to reassure myself that studying at a school like EPFL will always leave doors open for me, but I feel like I'm in denial.
So I wanted to ask for your opinion on HN, because I think you might have a more nuanced view. How would you react in my place if you hadn't started in this industry yet?