This is one of the more level-headed and empathetic writings that I've seen on the impact of LLMs on software engineers and our (or at least my) current strange combination of unbridled enthusiasm with existential dread. And it finishes with actual practical advice. (the post was derived from a talk the writer gave at his company)
> there’s fear in the air. You’ve heard that if you don’t learn these tools, you’ll be unemployable. That sounds pretty awful to me. What if none of us have jobs at the end of this?
> The industrial revolution didn’t eliminate human labor. It changed what human labor meant. Human labor still mattered at the end of it. The people who adapt to major technological shifts don’t just survive—they become more valuable, not less.
> I’m here to tell you it’ll be okay. You are smart. You can adapt. I believe in you.
> It’s not about 20x the number of lines of code you write, though you can do that. It’s about doing things you wouldn’t have attempted at all.
> A refactoring you’d never have had time for.
> An analysis you’d never have bothered with.
> A prototype you’d never have built.
> I’ve been doing this for nearly thirty-five years, and this is the most exciting time to write software I’ve seen. Yes, there are pleasures lost here. I love the flow state of writing code, just like I love printing black and white photographs in the darkroom. I don’t have to lose either one. I can still do both for pleasure. Black and white photography isn’t part of anybody’s journalism workflow any more, but people still do it. There’s a place for it all.
> The tools make it easy to produce a lot of code fast. They do not make it safe to skip evaluating what it did. Nobody is exempt. Don’t make our security team have to file disclosure reports, or clean up our messes.
> there’s fear in the air. You’ve heard that if you don’t learn these tools, you’ll be unemployable. That sounds pretty awful to me. What if none of us have jobs at the end of this?
> The industrial revolution didn’t eliminate human labor. It changed what human labor meant. Human labor still mattered at the end of it. The people who adapt to major technological shifts don’t just survive—they become more valuable, not less.
> I’m here to tell you it’ll be okay. You are smart. You can adapt. I believe in you.
> It’s not about 20x the number of lines of code you write, though you can do that. It’s about doing things you wouldn’t have attempted at all.
> A refactoring you’d never have had time for.
> An analysis you’d never have bothered with.
> A prototype you’d never have built.
> I’ve been doing this for nearly thirty-five years, and this is the most exciting time to write software I’ve seen. Yes, there are pleasures lost here. I love the flow state of writing code, just like I love printing black and white photographs in the darkroom. I don’t have to lose either one. I can still do both for pleasure. Black and white photography isn’t part of anybody’s journalism workflow any more, but people still do it. There’s a place for it all.
> The tools make it easy to produce a lot of code fast. They do not make it safe to skip evaluating what it did. Nobody is exempt. Don’t make our security team have to file disclosure reports, or clean up our messes.
> Two facts:
> We are responsible for what we ship.
> We can’t skip evaluating the work.