[mzz80]

I believe that the author is mistaken in their judgment. Demand will rise since software is becoming more complex and difficult to maintain rather than easier. However, the closer your position is to “webmaster”, the more likely your job will disappear and be replaced with jobs that require a more advanced skill set.

[dpau]

this is an important point. long ago just being able to write html and use ftp could get you a cozy job. the problems being tackled now often require advanced skills in machine learning and data science. as the requirements go up, software development may begin to more closely resemble medicine- high pay but also lifetime learning and high demands

[jefftk]

Most software development at high paying places like the FAANGs still does not require ML or data science. It's understanding the problem, figuring out what to treat as your constraints, figuring out the best changes to make to the current system to satisfy those constraints, getting other engineers on board with your proposal and handling feedback, making your changes, writing automated tests for your changes, writing appropriate monitoring, etc. These are the kind of skills that me and most of my coworkers have learned on the job, and we're happy to hire junior engineers who can code but don't know the rest yet. Which seems very different from medicine to me?