Many of these people made many of the countless things we take for granted every day (networking, operating systems, web search; hell, even the transformer architecture before they got productized!).
Seeing software development --- and software engineering by proxy --- get reduced to a jello that will be stepped on by "builders" in real-time is depressing as shit.
It's even more depressing to see folks on HACKER news boost the "programming never mattered" mentality that's taken hold these last few years.
Last comment I'll make before I step off my soapbox: the "codez real gud" folks that makes the big bucks bring way more to the table than their ability to code...but their ability to code is a big contributor to why they bring more to the table!
It’s always been jello. I at 51 can wax poetically about the good old days or I can keep doing what I need to do to keep money appearing in my account.
You are not the first person to say things like this.
Tell me, you ever wondered why a person with a programming background was filling that role?
On the enterprise dev side of the industry where most developers work, I saw a decade ago that if I were just a ticket taker who turned well defined requirements into for loop and if statements, that was an undifferentiated commodity.
You’re seeing now that even on the BigTech side knowing how to reverse a binary tree on the whiteboard is not enough.
Also if you look at the leveling guidelines of any major tech company, their leveling guidelines above mid level are based on scope, impact and dealing with ambiguity - not “I codez real gud”
One's ability to reverse a binary tree (which is a BS filter, but it is what it is) hasn't been an indicator of ability in some time. What _is_ though, is the wherewithall to understand _when_ that's important and tradeoffs that come with doing that versus using other data structures or systems (in the macro).
My concern is that, assuming today's trajectory of AI services and tooling, the need to understand these fundamentals will become less important over time as the value of "code" as a concept decreases. In a world where prompting is cheap because AI is writing all the code and code no longer matters, then, realistically, tech will be treated even more aggressively as a line item to optimize.
This is a sad reality for people like me whose love for computers and programming got them into this career. Tech has been a great way to make a wonderful living for a long time, and it's unfortunate that we're robbing future generations of what we took for granted.
There are millions of people that can code as well as you are I and a lot cheaper if you are in the US. Thousands of developers have been laid off over the last three years and tech companies keep going strong - what does that tell you?
I’m just as happy to get away from writing for loops in 2026 as was to be able to get away with LDA, LDX and BRA instructions once I could write performant code in C.
And how are we robbing future generations? Because some of us (not that I can take credit for any of it) move the state of technology from the 1Mhz Apple //e I had in 1986?
Your entire comment is this specific strawman - no one, and I mean no one, is making this claim! You are the only one who is (ironically, considering the job you do) too tone-deaf and too self-unaware to avoid making this argument.
I'm merely pointing out that your value-prop is based on a solid technical foundation, which I feel you agree on:
> If not the technical person, then who? It’s a lot easier for a technical person to learn how to talk the language of the business than a business person to have a deep understanding of technology.
The argument is not "Oh boo hoo, I wish I could spend 8 hours a day coding for money like I used to", so stop pretending like it is.
Even the comment I replied to mentioned “being a BA” like the most important quality of a software engineer is their ability to translate requirements into code.
Then what is it.
be blunt and obvious in your reply or go home.