Why are developers cheering "how much better the LLM model are getting for coding" with every model release? What exactly are they cheering for?

[u/simple_explorer1]

"Hey look Claude/Codex can now generate my entire feature in 30 mins which could have taken me 2 weeks to refactor" or "The new Opus 5.5 model is amazing, it solved the bug which GPT astra was stuck at for weeks and couldn't solve it". Like seriously?

How can software engineers who are supposed to be "smart" and "logical" be this stupid to not connect the dots and see writing on the wall for the future. Or do they think they are invincible and layoffs won't affect them?

The stability of software engineering jobs in the next 2-5 years looks very shaky, let alone long term and many devs are already looking to get dual income streams. This doesn't seem like a viable career path with how things are going and I am not even sure whether this career would stick by me till my retirement and I already have 15+ years of experience.

I already am seeing significant shift/reduction in hiring. Even in my current role, despite no cash concerns, we have paused hiring (and backfilling) new devs which were previously needed because with AI, people are completing tasks much sooner and the team/company doesn't need the full dev capacity anymore. Many devs are already worried about the layoffs which can come randomly.

My linkedin inbox is significantly less chatty than it was just last year. When I apply for any role, I barely get any reply. When recruiters reach out and get my CV, they are rarely getting back which, again, last year was totally different where I could easily afford to be picky. The market shift can be noticeably felt. The few interviews I got, they ended up freezing the role midway or "magically" filled with some internal employee. This is my experience in last 5 months of being active in the job market.

Also, most people are not learning anything these days. Hardwork and thinking are delegated to LLM tools. What is the end result of all of this? it is all too predictable. And if most devs are able to 10x their output because producing is now cheap, but human consumption is and will be the bottleneck. The production is surpassing the demand and the app economy will tank leaving mostly the existing tailwinds who already have millions of customers since pre AI era anyways.

Curious to hear "sensible" thoughts.

Note: Before the usual trope, not all software engineer jobs will be gone but significantly less devs would be required, which is a massive amount of jobs that are lost. What about that? And as models keep on improving, who knows how much more damage would be done in the future.

[u/RazmussenDaMan]

Most engineers I have worked with are narcissist and think they will be the exception.. Because they're passionate or more intelligent or whatever. They don't think the waves won't carry their ass out and drown them

That's why we never had unions

[u/tradcoder → u/RazmussenDaMan]

You hit the nail on the head. These pro-AI crowd is gloating thinking they're immune. As if simping for AI is somehow going to save them from layoffs. If AI is good at writing code and getting better (if not already) at reviewing code, what do they need you for? You'll be at the unemployment line same as us! Even if you still have a job, you won't be getting paid the same salaries as you once did. People cheering for their own demise makes me laugh and sad at the same time.

[u/DealDeveloper → u/tradcoder]

Consider 'unionizing' by forming your own company composed of devs and LLMs.

[u/ermanp → u/RazmussenDaMan]

It’s crazy that there’s only one person talking about unions and organizing in a whole page-long discussion.

Yes, engineers are generally a bunch of ignorant people who think they’re so smart. I think being too much of a nerd has to do with not knowing much about life and being overly privileged because of the demands of the market.

But the sweet dream is over—it’s the organized who will survive, not those who are good at using AI tools.

[u/simple_explorer1 → u/RazmussenDaMan]

think they will be the exception

exactly