I don't know if my job will still exist in ten years
Rapid advances in AI coding tools are shaking software engineers’ sense of job security, with many wondering whether traditional development roles will survive the next decade. Commenters weigh whether AI will primarily augment engineers or render large swaths of white‑collar work obsolete, and explore potential career pivots, from entrepreneurship and trades to psychology and healthcare. Underneath the technical debate runs a broader concern about social fallout, power concentration, and how societies might adapt if knowledge-work employment contracts sharply.
Progress, Automation, and “Meaningful Work”
- Some argue technological progress is political, not inevitable, and often concentrates wealth while increasing unemployment.
- Others counter that most people from the past would choose today’s comforts, medicine, and non-manual work; “romanticizing” physical labor ignores how damaging many manual jobs are.
- A minority suggests “less tech” could itself be progress, by improving resilience and meaningful physical activity, but this is strongly challenged.
Unions, Power, and Worker Leverage
- Several posters say software workers should have unionized earlier; now AI erodes leverage.
- Skeptics argue unions can’t help when the labor itself is no longer needed.
- Some think unions could still improve layoff processes and severance, even if they can’t stop automation.
What If Software Jobs Shrink or Disappear?
- People consider fallback careers: psychology, accounting, trades (electrician, welding, nursing, landscape design), piloting, hobby farming, small retail/food businesses.
- Entrepreneurship and “lifestyle businesses” are frequently mentioned; AI is seen as a force-multiplier for solo founders.
- There is fear of personal ruin, especially around housing costs; others reply that housing prices would adjust if high-paying jobs vanish.
How Far Can AI Go? Capabilities and Limits
- One camp sees LLMs already better than an “average” developer in many tasks, predicting large job losses even if they never reach perfection.
- Another camp stresses hallucinations, brittle reasoning, lack of real-time learning, and guidance overhead; they doubt full replacement and expect persistent demand for quality human work.
- Debate over “just a text predictor”: some say that’s fundamentally limiting; others note that prediction-plus-feedback is already surprisingly powerful.
Future Shape of Software Work
- Many expect fewer developers overall, with remaining roles more like architects: deciding what to build, orchestrating AI, navigating organizations, validating solutions.
- Concern that if routine coding is automated, juniors lose the traditional ladder to senior/architect roles.
- Some think SWE may be hit first but other white‑collar domains (accounting, office work, basic IT, marketing) will follow.
Broader Economic and Social Impacts
- If most office jobs are automated, posters foresee severe knock-on effects: commercial real estate, local services, and small businesses hollowed out.
- There is skepticism the US will deliver generous safety nets or UBI; instead, several advocate aggressively enabling AI-powered small-business formation to avoid social crisis.
Emotional Reactions and Values
- Thread mixes anxiety, resignation, and cautious optimism.
- Some accept that if a job can be automated it “should” be, but mourn loss of joy in problem-solving.
- Others are optimistic about 10x productivity, more solo projects, and a possible cultural shift back toward people in tech who “love the game.”