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How NOT to be a Software Engineer Today
There is one sentence I can’t stand hearing from software engineers anymore : “AI can do this, but it still can’t do that.” I am totally done with this statement.
A couple of years ago I would have honestly accepted it probably, and tbh said it myself. But today it’s sounds really funny to me. The hilarious part is that every few months, the “that” at the end of the “AI can do this, but it still can’t do that.” changes. I’ll tell you what I think the root cause of the statement is, but first let’s understand where we as engineers are standing right now.
There is a model of how people deal with a loss they can’t control, called the five stages of grief :
- First comes denial, where you tell yourself it isn’t happening.
- Then anger, where you’re furious that it is.
- Then bargaining, where you accept that it’s happening but try to negotiate, okay, take this part, but let me keep that part.
- Then depression.
- And finally acceptance.
In my honest opinion, our whole profession is sitting in the third stage right now. Bargaining. And “AI can do this, but it can’t do that” is the bargain.
I know this “Bargaining” thing can sound vague and pretentious to some software engineers so I’ll…
