Why AI won’t kill software engineering jobs

🎓 There are more computer science majors today than at any point in history — so many that some universities have made the major application-only
Issue #125: on staying in the closet + switching teams
By Harris Sockel

The false analogy fallacy: If two things are similar in one way, they’re not necessarily the same in other ways. I’m always wary of arguments that start with “consider X” before jumping into an argument about Y — especially if Y has a very different context or purpose than X, and the argument hinges on the parallels between the two.

Anyway! An argument-by-analogy went viral on the platform formerly known as Twitter a few months ago. Chris Paik, an investor and entrepreneur, titled it “The End of Software.” (Not the first time someone has used this ominous phrase.)

His argument is essentially: The internet gave everyone the tools to create their own magazines, TV shows, podcasts for free. What’s coming next is an internet, powered by LLMs, that will give anyone — even non-engineers like me — the ability to make their own software for free. “Majoring in computer science today will be like majoring in journalism in the late ‘90s.”

On Medium, venture capitalist Bryce Roberts describes the response to the post as “violent” and actually videotaped an interview with Paik in which Paik reads aloud all the dunks people took on it (and a few nuanced comments, too). Another VC, Christoph Janz at Point Nine — investors in Loom, Zendesk, and other tools I use daily — published a rebuttal: “Rumors of the Death of Software Are Greatly Exaggerated.” AI is software, he reminds us. How can software eat itself? Or, I guess, isn’t that what software has been doing all along?

He concludes: AI will make software more valuable, not less, because it will make building cookie-cutter products easier, leaving the real innovation to humans.

One more story we’re reading

In an interview with the Academy, Jane Schoenbrun, director of the A24 horror drama I Saw the TV Glow, describes it as a film about the “egg crack” — the moment when a trans person realizes their assigned gender doesn’t match who they are. Collider calls the film “bold, unhinged… and also kind of magnificent.” It’s a movie about questioning your reality and your identity.

Harmony Colangelo, a trans film critic on Medium, didn’t love it but takes issue more with how people are talking about it: “this isn’t about I Saw The TV Glow itself, it’s about the Dan Savage-ass ‘It Gets Better’ platitudes about how coming out sooner rather than later is the only option.” There is no one way to be trans. There is no best way to be trans, or gay, or queer, or anything else — and sometimes you need to stay in the closet until you’re well into adulthood because that’s what’s safest for you. And that’s okay.

Your daily dose of practical wisdom: about switching teams

If you’re bored or complacent at work, you don’t necessarily need leave — consider simply switching teams. Engineer Benoit Ruiz recommends it over quitting, or at least as a Hail Mary before doing so. Even if the company is the same, the team’s rituals and style will be different, challenging you to adapt.

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Edited and produced by Scott Lamb & Carly Rose Gillis

Questions, feedback, or story suggestions? Email us: tips@medium.com