Linkedin is the sleaziest thing I’ve seen on the internet since it was invented. The sight of it makes my skin crawl. The way they have desperately tried to onboard you via data that they seem to have that they shouldn’t. The way users even present themselves, posting updates that probably make them want to vomit themselves and shower in disgust even tho it’s not their fault, we need to find work. The bloody badge that you have to wear on your forehead to say you are available for work. The thought of the money they are raking in from recruiters and corporations. The way they try to be a little bit more like Facebook to make it look a little more ‘fun’. I hate it.
Well they made it. They conquered the recruitment scene and I can’t think of a company I’d wish had gone out of business sooner.
Exactly. Software development is 20% of what your average software developer does. Figuring out what to build is a skill some don’t even realise they are doing every day, and it’s an incredibly valuable skill.
I think what is left is that understanding pain points and knowing what problems needs solved is more important now than ever. If anyone can create a product now then the one who knows what product to actually create is the winner. And who might this be? Well it might just be the people who spent the last 10 years speaking to customers, building a SaaS. They have 10 years of taking to customers finding out what to build. Even if they were to start from scratch today they already have the requirements in their pocket.
The game has change. The ‘how’ we build it is easy. The ‘what’ we build is and always has been the hardest part of any SaaS or business.
No you didn’t. You lead a team of gardeners to develop your grand vision. Or you directed an epic movie leading a cast of talented actors bringing your vision to life. You can choose an empowering analogy or a negative one it’s your choice.
I think you need to lighten up and adapt the way programmers have adapted since the 50s. There’s been a lot of pomposity over the past ten years around “craft”, you’d think we’re all precious Renaissance artists pining for recognition over our heavenly crafted code rather than engineers. I’m in my late forties also I’m case that matters at all, I don’t think it does. If anything that gives me an advantage to spot and quickly filter out the 1/10 insanely bad suggestions that AI pukes out and know when it’s giving me decent code. Who knows where it will lead but stubbornly refusing to move won’t help. Please take this in a positive way also, rather than a dig. Be positive. Also think of all the job opportunities you will have rewriting all the crap code that gets punted out over the next 10 years. You’re going to be rich. Seriously tho, if you are in your forties you have the advantage of leveraging AI yourself but also knowing when it is bull shitting you.
If he can only remember two programming languages then he wouldn’t stand a chance in today’s dev ops, t-shaped, m-shaped world I’m afraid. Imagine asking him to help setup an CI pipeline, or some infrastructure but he’s worried learning a bit of Terraform will make him forget his second last language. You just can’t be like that these days. You have to be a jack of all trades and a master of all trades. That’s just where we are and it’s not going to change anytime soon.