this post was submitted on 25 Aug 2024
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[–] [email protected] 34 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Let's assume this is true, just for discussion's sake. Who's going to be writing the prompts to get the code then? Surely someone who can understand the requirements, make sure the code functions, and then test it afterwards. That's a developer.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I don't believe for a single instance that what he says is going to happen, this is just a play for funding... But if it were to happen I'm pretty sure most companies would hire anything that moves for those jobs. You have many examples of companies offloading essential parts of their products externally.

I've also seen companies hiring tourism graduates (et al non engineering related) giving them a 3/4 week programming course, slapping a "software engineer" sticker on them and off they are to work on products they have no experience to work on. Then it's up to senior engineers to handle all that crap.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

This explains so much about 1 in 4 IT people I meet.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I think that's the point? They're saying that those coders will turn into prompt engineers. They didn't say they wouldn't have a job, just that they wouldn't be "coding".

Which I don't believe for a minute. I could see it eventually, but it's not "2 years" away by any stretch of the imagination.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Possibly. But... Here's the thing. I've dealt with "business rules" engines before at a job. I used a few different ones. The idea is always to make coding simpler so non technical people can do it. Unless you couldn't tell from context, I'm a software engineer lol. I was the one writing and troubleshooting those tools. And it was harder than if it was just in a "normal" language like Java or whatever.

I have a soft spot for this area and there's a non zero chance this comment makes me obsess over them again for a bit lol. But the point I'm making is that "normal" coding was always better and more useful.

It's not a perfect comparison because LLMs output "real" code and not code that is "Scratch-like", but I just don't see it happening.

I could see using LLMs exclusively over search engines (as a first place to look that is) in 2 years. But we'll see.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Definitely be coding less I think. Coding or programming is basically the "grunt work". The real skill is understanding requirements and translating that into some product.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

No, going by them, they just talk to an AI voice and it will pop out a finished product.