I, too, chose the career where you get paid to google your own problems all day.
Good luck finding a job at all and especially if you’re in it only for the money
In the grand scheme of society, it’s kinda bonkers how there was such a short window to go to learn something like Web Development and get a job before it started being replaced. Basically a job that existed for ~30 years and won’t be around much longer.
(Yes I know AI is dumb, but it doesn’t matter if C-Suite execs think it can do it, they’ll replace jobs with AI)
Even without AI, Web Development was destined to be a short lived industry.
Sure, it will be around in some form, but a lot of that space has been taken over by mobile app development. Another portion of the market has been taken over by social media (your business doesn’t need a website anymore; it needs an Instagram/twitter/etc). And yet another portion has been taken over by products like Wix that allow non-experts to make good enough websites themselves (even without AI).
Really, thinking of “web dev” as a profession is a category error. You are a graphical designer and programmer that was working in the web industry. There are plenty of other industries that hire your profession.
You aren’t wrong, but I think web apps would have been more prevalent because you could develop for a single platform (browser) and it would work on most any device that has a browser.
If companies, like Apple didn’t block Progressive Web Apps in order to force App Store usage, I’d disagree, but we just don’t live in that world.
Tech workers have historically been respected and well-paid, without unions. The power of tech workers did not come from solidarity, but from scarcity, Doctorow said. The minute bosses ordered tech workers to enshittify the product they were loyally working on, perhaps missing various important social and family events to ship it on time, those workers could say no—perhaps in a much more coarse way. Tech workers could simply walk across the street ““and have a new job by the end of the day”” if the boss persisted.
So labor held off enshittification after competition, regulation, and interoperability were all systematically undermined and did so for quite some time—until the mass tech layoffs. There have been half a million tech workers laid off since 2023, more are announced regularly, sometimes in conjunction with raises for executive salaries and bonuses. Now, workers cannot turn their bosses down because there are ten others out there just waiting to take their job.
Yes and no, I don’t want to deal with people too much. But I’m in help desk so it’s only half true
I like solving puzzles, and I have a knack for programming specifically
I wish I could say the same. I didn’t get into programming for the money, I got into it because it was the only thing I was any good at and generally wouldn’t discriminate against me because of my disability.
Too many people like this have ruined the field.
If we hadn’t made this all 100% about the money the entire world would be running on the best possible software.
An example I’ll give is ghostty, where 1 guy who got rich enough to cash out gets to spend his time making insanely good software, using a somewhat risky pre 1.0 language that would never get approved by corporate/investors, just because he wants to and enjoys it. And he openly chastises people telling him to enshittify or turn it into a business, because he doesn’t need to.
The entire Web 2.0 was built on the exact same thing with pylons, Django, rails, flask, etc. being born out of people who just wanted to code.
If I had 5-10x more wealth so that I never had to worry about money, this is what I’d be doing too.
Actually, what I’d be doing is attending university classes every day and writing software and doing analysis on the side.
Sir, I need money for food.
Yeah I know. That’s why I work too.
I still think this field has been wrecked with greed and enshittification.
I think that should be directed towards the top, not people working for a living.
Devs who are devs for no other reason than money and who don’t give a shit about the quality of their work are a problem.
ghostty is recently a nonprofit, I didn’t know the creator’s backstory! https://linuxiac.com/ghostty-terminal-emulator-transitions-to-non-profit-status/
Me over here who just liked problem solving and making things.
too many people be like this. well, they’re gonna have a rough awakening when the IT job market collapses.
There’s already a glut of tech workers. The IT job market already sucks
I don’t imagine AI is going to make it much worse
The glut of US tech workers is due to the excessive number of H1B visas being issued. This year, the number was almost the same, but slightly higher than the total number of US tech graduates. Why hire an expensive American new graduate when you can hire someone from India with 3-5 years of experience at 60% market rate instead?
You should meet the maths majors who aren’t really interested in maths but think a maths degree will allow them to become hedge fund managers or similar
Hum… The US is imploding in general, but there’s nothing on the horizon that could collapse the IT job market.
“Make people study”? You’re mistaken. No one is making anyone study.
Charge people to study? You bet your ass they’ll take as many people as are willing to pay their overpriced fees. Finding a job after? Getting decent pay? That’s a you problem as far as they’re concerned.
Huh? First 9 years of school is absolutely mandatory where I come from, now 12 I think soon.
Then after 12 years of school you still need a degree for most job listings. That’s optional but it’s free so you’re seen as uneducated if you don’t get a degree.
I just think computers are neat 🤷♂️
Lol we tricked an entire generation into oversaturating the STEM market so Lockheed Martin could get cheaper labor :3
There 4 billion recent STEM students in China taking the future away from the west.
The amount of STEM students isn’t the problem it’s how we are using them
It’s both. The tech giants and the defense sector pushed for “everyone should learn to code” because it increases the labor pool, but they gladly take H1B visas at the same time. Their intention is the same for both, more laborers makes for cheaper labor
Yea I know.
Its not a business failing though it is a government failing. Whsts the point of having a government if they don’t fix shit like this? That’s what they are for.
Yeah that didn’t pan out
Whoooooops!
