[pj4533]

All I know is that I have built more in the past 10 months than I ever have. How do you quantify for the skeptics the mental shift that happens when you know you can just build stuff now?

COULD I do this stuff before? Sure. But I wouldn’t have. Life gets in the way. Now, the bar is low so why not build stuff? Some of it ships, some of it is just experimentation. It’s all building.

Trying to quantify that shift is impossible. It’s not a multiplier to productivity you measure by commits. It’s a builder mind shift.

[sjw987]

"I have built more in the past 10 months than I ever have."

Correction. The genAI has built it.

I haven't got any skin on either side here, but doesn't the fact the genAI can build it imply that what you are doing is heavily trodden ground, that there will be less and less need for developers like you, and will gradually lead to many developers (like you) being cut out of the market entirely.

For personal stuff it's wonderful. For work, it seems like a double edged sword that will eventually cut the devs that use it (and those that don't). Even if the business owners aren't completely daft and keep a (vastly diminished) workforce of dev/AI consultants on board, that could easily exclude you or me.

It's going well if all the jobs it eradicates can be replaced with just as many jobs (they can't), or the powers that be catch on and realise there isn't that many jobs left for humans to do and institute some form of basic income system (they won't).

[pj4533]

"The genAI has built it" -- this is the core point. If I did nothing except complain about AI for the past 10 months, would these projects exist? No they would not. So. I. Built. It.

If you actually use these tools, really use them. You realize that it's an augmentation not a replacement. Simply because the training data is what has already come before (for now!). The LLMs need help, direction, focus...and those are learned skills dependent on the tooling. Not to mention ideas.

And sure, I imagine the software development workforce will change quite a bit, probably this year, no doubt about that.

But the need for builders will not change. I imagine that the 'builder' role will change to be traditional software developers, designers, sales people, writers, c-suite...whatever.

So I think you are right. "That could easily exclude you or me". 100% correct. The required skill set to be a builder is changing on a weekly basis. The only way to keep up is to keep building with these tools. Trying things. Experimenting. Otherwise, yes, you will probably be replaced. By a builder.

[joquarky]

> For work, it seems like a double edged sword that will eventually cut the devs

Developers have been putting non-developers out of a job for decades.