Software engineering may no longer be a lifetime career

The internet has latched onto one deliciously bleak idea: what if writing software stops being a lifelong career and starts looking more like pro sports—good money now, burnout later? The article argues that even if artificial intelligence helps workers in the short term while making them worse at the job over time, bosses may still demand it because speed wins. In plain English: you can still write everything by hand if you want… but you might not get paid for it.

And wow, the comments did not keep calm. One camp basically yelled, “This is absurd.” User vasco mocked the whole premise, asking if “using a chat UI” can really make someone dumber, comparing it to customer service workers answering repetitive messages all day. Another crowd went for the classic middle-ground flex: AI is fine if it supports your thinking, but if it replaces your thinking, you were already in trouble. That was the vibe from raffael_de, who delivered the coldest line in the thread without even trying.

Then came the dark comedy. One commenter joked that the real forever-job will be cleaning up “AI slop software,” and that fixing it may take “several lifetimes.” Ouch. Another said software engineering was never a real lifelong identity anyway—just a tool, like a drill, and smart workers should attach it to a bigger specialty. Translation: don’t marry the keyboard. The drama here isn’t just about machines. It’s about panic, pride, denial, and a lot of people realizing their “safe” career may suddenly have an expiration date.