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Software engineering is slowly being lowered to a basic skill to please corporations that literally want you to automate your job away. The only fruitful areas of software engineering that I can see being relevant in the next 10 years are those mixed with other hard sciences such as bioinformatics, robotics, bleeding edge statistics and mathematics (AI research), physics, etc. The trend I see right now is that software engineering is being integrated with business-oriented degrees or arts degrees, targeted programs towards beginners offered for free or low prices. There's going to be a higher barrier of entry for the jobs that are actually worth the stress and I'm praying I'll be able to catch the train before it leaves the station.

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  • 3
    Well, not being able to write, or read, a simple computer program in 2020 equals to being illiterate in 1930.
    like steam engine replaced human strength computers are replacing repetitive work.
    A worker today has to use computer power to do his job, so him/her can do a lot more things at once, but that computer scripts require maintainance and updates.
    So the job for a common person is going to be that maintainance (obviously you have to know how to do the job your script is doing).
  • 4
    this is an interesting and important topic worthy of discussion. I feel that software engineers are a generous bunch as a whole, open sourcing their work for the "rest of the world". This (mostly) benefits humanity as a whole. But what about individual software engineers? Are software engineers becoming the construction workers of the 21st century? Will education open up to adult learners so that the software engineers of today can transit to their desired role of tomorrow?
  • 1
    @trollonaboat this is exactly what I mean, glad someone other than me sees this. Feels like everyone I know around here doesn't seem to realize the trend
  • 3
    If your job becomes easier and you do nothing, you probably will be left behind. It's sad but true for every job. We'll lose our privileged position, and maybe that's what we need to stop creating js frameworks and start to work on adding value to humanity.
  • 0
    @beegC0de hi there! :)

    Quite relatable and deserving of a South Park reference (https://m.youtube.com/watch/...)! :)

    It's a given that creating software will increasingly require fewer skills but I don't think it's because someone is planning to get humans out of the equation. A more pressing reason to "make it basic" is that there aren't enough qualified humans to go around - resulting in a skill shortage to create, update and maintain the volume apps that people and companies want built.
  • 0
    @lowcodemonkey hi again! I disagree that there is a shortage of skilled software engineers. The hype around this "shortage" is created by companies that don't want to pay the same as others did some decades back, which created this frenzy of enrollment in computer science programs (my hypothesis). Now that there is a surplus of grads, hiring managers can make junior developers fight over underpaid positions that ask too much of them.

    The benefit of getting rid of developer jobs on the lower end in my opinion is that it will force devs to pursue further education, thus creating a surplus in the higher skill requirement pool, driving down prices.
  • 0
    @beegC0de interesting! Just realized that what you say and, in hindsight, some of the daily rants differ significantly from my experience and perception.
    Gotta love DevRant for helping me notice that perhaps I'm living in a special bubble...
  • 0
    @lowcodemonkey just another perspective, I'm not claiming its fact 😉 enjoy the bubble!
  • 0
    @lowcodemonkey

    then they should fucking pay more money instead of asking the state to finance their own fucking training budgets.
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