alt Hacker NewsLike other tech disrupted crafts before this, think furniture making or farming, that's how it goes. From hand-made craft, to mass production factories (last couple of decades) to fully automated production.
The craft was dying long before LLMs. Started in dotcom, ZIRP added some beatings, then LLMs are finishing the job.
This is fine, because like in furniture making, the true craftsmen will be even more valuable (overseeing farm automation, high end handmade furniture, small organic farms), and the factory worker masses (ZIRP enabled tech workers) will move on to more fulfulling work.
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That’s not how it goes for the worker. If you are a capitalist then it doesn’t matter, you own the means of production. The laborer, however, has to learn new skills, which take time and money. If your profession no longer exists, unless you have enough capital to retool/be a capitalist, then you will personally get poorer.
Where do people find this optimism? I reckon when the software jobs fall everything else will follow shortly too. That's just the first target because it's what we know and the manual stuff is a little harder for now. The "good news" is everyone might be in the same boat so the system will have to adapt,
I'm not sure comparing artisanal software to woodworking or organic farming is possible.
With woodworking and farming you get as a result some physical goods. Some John Smith that buys furniture can touch nice cherry paneling, appreciate the joinery and grain. With farming you he can taste delicious organic tomatoes and cucumbers, make food with it.
Would this John Smith care at all about how some software is written as long as it does what he wants and it works reliably? I'm not sure.