Ask HN: AI Agents took my programming job. What can I do?
4 comments
Curious, what did you do for this customer? Are they technologically sophisticated? Do they have a lot of users for what they built, or are they building tools used internally by a handful of people?
For simple tasks and code that doesn't change much over time, programmers don't add a lot of value over what an LLM can provide. It's easy to prompt your way to a good-enough tool for a small and exclusive set of users. Managing complexity beyond that is where a real programmer provides value.
Experienced developers provide a deep understanding of what's possible, knowing what to build, how to avoid pitfalls, how to adapt to new requirements. The expertise is in managing projects that evolve over time, meet the needs of hundreds to thousands of users, interact with external systems, have meaningful compliance, performance, and security requirements, etc.
For simple tasks and code that doesn't change much over time, programmers don't add a lot of value over what an LLM can provide. It's easy to prompt your way to a good-enough tool for a small and exclusive set of users. Managing complexity beyond that is where a real programmer provides value.
Experienced developers provide a deep understanding of what's possible, knowing what to build, how to avoid pitfalls, how to adapt to new requirements. The expertise is in managing projects that evolve over time, meet the needs of hundreds to thousands of users, interact with external systems, have meaningful compliance, performance, and security requirements, etc.
It essentially was $600/mo ERP and costing software for their company.
We were supposed to build it for them because it didn't have enough features and was expensive.
I have great concerns your last paragraph is wishful thinking. I want to believe, but I also saw him, a marketer by degree, actually solve the problem better than the $600/mo software.
We were supposed to build it for them because it didn't have enough features and was expensive.
I have great concerns your last paragraph is wishful thinking. I want to believe, but I also saw him, a marketer by degree, actually solve the problem better than the $600/mo software.
Things I don't really believe in:
>Someone needs to tell the AI what to do and check. No... I'm a middle man, I actually make it worse because we are playing telephone.
>I can train people how to set up, use AI, and do it safely. No... Claude is going to build their own OpenClaw-like system.
Maybe I can work for some gigantic company, but I sank a few years into my own company that was doing well making custom software.
My question:
What is the value that experienced programmers are going to provide?