Tell HN: I am afraid AI will take my job at some point
I can call myself an average senior engineer. Cannot really pass the DSA rounds at Tier 1/Tier 2.
Somehow was able to keep the jobs I had so far via pure bruteforce and hard work.
These days I am pair programming with AI to write a lot of code. Probably checking in about 10 to 15k lines of code per month on average. I know it may not be a good metric, but if I compare myself to an earlier verision of me, that person would be checking in a 2 or 3 k lines of code at best per month.
I can get the work done, probably can do a bit of good judgement when AI writes sloppy code.
But, I am not sure till when these skills will be relevant
Like what if that judgement is not needed anymore, like 2-3 years down the line?
Is anyone else in the same boat? How are you dealing with this?
22 comments
[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 56.2 ms ] threadThat's us, developers. That will never change. We're the ones dedicated to it.
Execs, managers, HR, salesmen, designers etc won't suddenly want to spend their whole days, not even half of their time, tinkering with a computer so it can do what they want.
Else Basic and Fortran would have made everyone software developers.
Do you feel calmer now? (:
I think you mean COBOL instead of Fortran? COBOL is a beautiful language, one of the most human readable ones we've ever had.
This one also: https://terriblesoftware.org/2025/12/11/ai-can-write-your-co...
The world also just doesn't change that quickly.
Even with the most rosy projections, there is no way that software engineers are unnecessary in 2-3 years. Go have a look at METR's projections, even rosy projections aren't getting us to software that can replace engineers in a few years, let alone having that change ripple through the economy.
And nobody actually knows how far AI progress will go on the current trajectory. Moore's law was a steady march for a long time, until it wasn't.
You are witnessing the "Hyper-inflation of Syntax." If you measure your worth by LOC (Lines of Code), you are right to be afraid. AI has driven the cost of syntax to near zero.
But here is what I see in my work with old Japanese manufacturers (Shinise): When "Crafting" becomes cheap, "Responsibility" becomes the premium asset.
AI can write 15k lines of code, but it cannot take *Liability* for a single one. It cannot go to jail, it cannot lose its reputation, and it cannot feel the weight of a system failure.
Your job is shifting from "Writer" to "Guardian." Don't compete on volume (Scale). Compete on the ability to take the blame and guarantee the "Why." That is the one thing the algorithm can never optimize away.
As AI generates billions of lines of code, the world is about to be flooded with "technical debt" and "security holes." The scarcity shifts from writing code to verifying it.
Concrete Action: Shift your skill set towards security auditing, compliance, and system architecture verification. Position yourself as the "Digital Notary" who stamps the AI's work with a human guarantee.
When a bank (like mine) lends money to a software project, we don't ask "Did an AI write this?" We ask "Which human is going to jail if this fails?"
Be the person whose name is on the insurance policy. That is a job an algorithm can never take.
So I feel like I'm on the Titanic- the ship is sinking and we're going all to hit the water eventually, the trick is to try to keep dry as long as possible. If you've been in an organisation for long, and you know the business, the people, the organisation, have domain knowledge and can contribute beyond translating to code someone else's requirements... These are all valuable assets that will keep you relevant and useful for some time.
[1] except government employees in Europe. Those will never be made redundant, whatever happens.
Instead of the Titanic (a single point of failure sinking), consider the Ise Grand Shrine in Japan. Every 20 years, they completely rebuild the temple (Shikinen Sengu).
Why? To transfer the skill of building, not just preserve the building itself.
We are entering a "Grand Rebuilding" phase. Yes, the old structures (traditional coding jobs) are being dismantled. But the purpose is to transfer the essence of "Logic" and "Value Creation" to a new material (AI).
Don't cling to the old wood. Focus on being the carpenter who knows how to build the new shrine.
tl;dr: Technology eliminates tasks not jobs, ie. automating routine work while making the remaining human parts more valuable: judgement, problem-solving, knowing what to build and why, communicating with a bunch of stakeholders.
This judgement and communication layer has been stubbornly hard to automate across every previous wave of tech and so it will be with this one.
Even if AI is capable of good judgement in a problem space, are the users of the AI able to ask the right questions to get it to express that judgement? (speaking from experience: no).
Banging out syntactically correct code loses value but communication and end-to-end ownership gains value; translating vague C-suite wishlists into working systems, knowing when _not_ to automate or use AI, navigating organizational constraints, understanding the domain you are working in, the organization you are working in, and directing technology in their service.
As long as there are capital owners they will have a need to exchange that capital for skilled, professional judgement in high value tasks, just the nature of what tasks are considered high value will adapt over time, as it always has.
1). There are many many people there couldn't probably already write more lines of code than me and work for much much cheaper (in India or wherever). Same is true for you (probably). Yet you still have a job.
2). I have a friend that works as a Software and System Engineer for a complicated product that interfaces with the real world. He has to use Natural Language to create requirements that gets turns into code by natural agents down in the "Supply Chain". There are also integration engineers that work with the naturally intelligent agents that create the prompts/requirements to make sure things don't fail (then triage and root cause when they do)
3. Why not diversify your skills beyond code but also hardware, systems, soft skills, business etc etc.
No one knows the future sadly.
In which case everybody is in the same boat and we'll all be in it together.
I don't really believe software dev is uniquely at risk to AI.
God, these claims are so ridiculous. You guys are probably doing it wrong if you write that much code.
There's no way any developer can meaningfully test, read and review 750 lines worth of changes per day.
And with AI code you've got to really go through it with a fine tooth comb, you can't scan the code. There's loads of subtle, but bad, bugs and assumptions it makes without telling you. I really want to emphasise the assumptions bit. A good example I saw recently was it assuming the sort order of a DB call should be something totally wrong, but easy to miss unless you read every line meticulously.
So either the OP is lying about how many lines their AI is pumping out, or they're checking complete AI slop untested and unreviewed into the codebase.
It will be about the projects architecture and it's alignment with the will of the users. Since AI is not able to do that yet, and probably won't be there in a long time. We as programmers has to contribute with that part. It's our intuitive system thinking, and user understanding that have taken years or decades to form.
Because of this, my prediction is that in the short term, there will be an increase in the need of programming / system thinking skills
https://www.folklore.org/Negative_2000_Lines_Of_Code.html
Yes I am aware of BigTech comp - I’m talking about boring old companies like banks, airlines, etc where most developers work.
AI is just making the problem worse for the “ticket takers”. No matter what your title is if you are pulling tickets off the board - that’s mid level behavior.
On the BigTech and adjacent side which is a completely different industry with separate rules to enter and different comp, being able to do leetCode to get a job isn’t enough as of 2022.