> university in 1982, and I was advised not to pick computing since AI was going to take over programming

Don't you think they made that call way too early? You could've had a full career between then and now.

I was getting into university around the same time. I don't recall any sentiments like this at all. And when discussions about automating programming came up it was usually dismissed as impossible - which it was back then. People didn't necessarily say it would never happen, but it was going to be a very long time in the future. It basically became possible to do in 2024 (and much better since then), way earlier than I would've have expected it to happen. But in the meantime from 1984 - 2024 I was able to have a pretty good career (I'm glad to be able to be retired now, I wouldn't want to be facing this in my 40s or 50s.)