I agree at least a little bit, but let’s be honest: the history of software engineering is a history of higher and higher levels of abstraction wrapping the previously levels.
So part of this is just another abstraction. But another part, which I agree with, is that abstracting how you learn shit is not good. For me, I use AI in a way that helps me learn more and accomplish more. I deliberately don’t cede my thinking process away, and I deliberately try to add more polish and quality since it helps me do it in less time. I don’t feel like my know-how is useless — instead, I’m seeing how valuable it is to know shit when a junior teammate is opening PRs with critical mistakes because they don’t know any better (and aren’t trying to learn)
I like to read books on computers from the 70s and 80s. No trite analogies, just hard facts and diagrams. And explanations that start from scratch, requiring no previous knowledge - because there was none.
The thing about these layers of abstraction is that they add load and thus increase the demand for people and teams and organizations that command these lower levels. The idea that, on a systemic level, higher abstraction levels can diminish the importance, size, complexity or expertise needed overall or even keep it at current levels is entirely misguided.
As we add load on top, the base has to become stronger and becomes more important, not less.
This is a good point. However, the base is relatively narrow; there are many, many more people working in the popular frameworks and languages like e.g. React or Java or what have you than there are people who work on the fundamentals and have that low level understanding. And I'm afraid people at that level are going to become rare.
It's not hopeless though, it feels like that in the past decade, some of the smartest minds working at the lower levels of abstractions have come up with great new technologies. New programming languages that push the envelope of performance and security while maintaining good developer experience, great advancements in microchip technologies, that kinda thing.
It's important to maintain access to universities and higher education, where people who have the interest and mindset can learn and become part of this base that powers the greater software market.
I don't know. People working in web frameworks might be more visible, and more numerous than people working more low level stuff. But I don't think the latter is rarefied atmosphere at all. There are today several times more people working on those base levels than 10 or 20 years ago and I expect the trend to continue.
Sure, they will enable even more people proportionally to not think about those low level systems. But my argument is that the need for that low level expertise has always expanded and will keep expanding.
Automation entails tonnes of complexity that need to be managed. It doesn't just evaporate. More automatic systems will demand more people and teams to learn low level systems in great detail and at high levels of accuracy.
So part of this is just another abstraction. But another part, which I agree with, is that abstracting how you learn shit is not good. For me, I use AI in a way that helps me learn more and accomplish more. I deliberately don’t cede my thinking process away, and I deliberately try to add more polish and quality since it helps me do it in less time. I don’t feel like my know-how is useless — instead, I’m seeing how valuable it is to know shit when a junior teammate is opening PRs with critical mistakes because they don’t know any better (and aren’t trying to learn)