When someone posts about the inevitable commodification of software development, the response on HN is usually one of denial. I'm wondering if some of these responses are starting to sound a little angry too - maybe we're going through the five stages of grief as a community!
Lowering the bar to software development and opening up the employment market to a global one is going to have an undeniable impact. It certainly won't take away from the fact that problem solvers are needed to create solutions and it also doesn't mean that there won't be a place for the highly skilled people with specialist technical skills. But it will change the landscape significantly.
Software engineers will loose a lot of the influence and power they have enjoyed over the last decade. In my view, this is an important and necessary step. The ability to build software that solves meaningful problems shouldn't be concentrated in the hands of a few people (even a few hundred thousand) who have a narrow view of the kinds of problems software should be put to work to solving.
The article expresses concern that this displaced power could end up in the hands of big tech. I'm more of an optimist and believe that we could go in the other direction all together. The ability to create problem solving software can and will be democratized to a much broader degree than ever before and will lead to more meaningful problems being solved across the world. As a software engineer myself, that's the future I want to help build towards.
Lowering the bar to software development and opening up the employment market to a global one is going to have an undeniable impact. It certainly won't take away from the fact that problem solvers are needed to create solutions and it also doesn't mean that there won't be a place for the highly skilled people with specialist technical skills. But it will change the landscape significantly.
Software engineers will loose a lot of the influence and power they have enjoyed over the last decade. In my view, this is an important and necessary step. The ability to build software that solves meaningful problems shouldn't be concentrated in the hands of a few people (even a few hundred thousand) who have a narrow view of the kinds of problems software should be put to work to solving.
The article expresses concern that this displaced power could end up in the hands of big tech. I'm more of an optimist and believe that we could go in the other direction all together. The ability to create problem solving software can and will be democratized to a much broader degree than ever before and will lead to more meaningful problems being solved across the world. As a software engineer myself, that's the future I want to help build towards.