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It’s not their fault. They enrolled in a master’s program to get a job in tech. Why? Let’s be candid: tech has promised job security and agreeable (sometimes borderline perverse) financial returns for a couple of decades. Many tech employers also spin a yarn about “saving the world” and coast on the reputational allure of “if you work here, you’re a genius.” Sounds great, doesn’t it? Except, now that students have invested five figures of money in their tech education1, had their skulls crammed full of ‘invisible hand of the market’ propaganda, and counted on having secured their ticket to the party, they’re seeing layoffs. They’re seeing exposés. They’re seeing compensation adjustments at the most lucrative tech companies. And they’re seeing a news cycle that oscillates wildly between blaming AI for these changes and extolling it as the solution.

you learn to write Dijkstra’s from a blank editor so you can get the job at Twitter, but once you accept the offer you never actually do that. What you need to do is understand, update, and (optimistically) un***k existing systems written by other people.

Obligatory…

Are large language models gonna cause programmers to lose their jobs? Not anymore than StackOverflow did, in my view. However, it’s going to change them…somewhat.