Ethan Richards – We’re in the Wrong Moment

August 20th, 2011: Marc Andreessen proclaims ‘Software
is eating the world.’ That was over ten years ago. Today, software is still eating the world, but this
is no longer a groundbreaking proclamation nor a surprise to anyone. In the years that followed, software would
become integral to our daily lives, business, and attention.

My Story

As I learned and continue to learn more about computer science through my degrees, I am constantly
reminded of times gone by. I had professors who had lived through the rise of computer science;
who invented network systems ground up, pioneered research in their fields and had advisors
from the previous generation who invented modern systems that we know today. I am
reminded of a golden age of CS and software engineering, where founders and academics
would bump into each other in the Bay Area and create the next big thing seemingly on a whim.

I met people and friends who had gone to work for their dream companies – the Microsofts, Apples, Googles, and those
people who made six figures out of college. I had heard legends (for lack of a better term) of the geniuses; the
students who made such a difference in school and then went on to pursue their dreams and have a steady career.

Alas, all of this seems gone these days. In my final term of college, I can’t help but feel a longing for the
days where software was eating the world. I feel as if I would’ve thrived, would’ve innovated, and would’ve had more fun.
I feel like my experience would have been worth more then, but now it’s worth hardly anything in a changing industry.

What do you do when it’s no longer fun?

I’ve said my story a few times in different writings, but I started programming with Minecraft during
my adolescent years. I learned Java and OOP before I had even learned algebra. I had learned
worst-case behavior and programmatic/problem solving thinking before I had really started a sport.
The struggle of solving a problem; of debugging, of failing, and eventually succeeding always made
it worth it for me again.

I love writing code. It’s like writing in general, or it’s like a creative art. You tweak it,
revise it, pay attention to detail a thousand times. You keep on working at it and iterating
on it until it’s just right.

I’m not sure if anyone else feels this way, but with the introduction of generative AI, I don’t find coding fun
anymore. It’s hard to motivate myself to code knowing that a model can do it much quicker. The joy of coding
for me was literally the process of coding.

Today, AI is eating the world. You can’t hardly go to a website without seeing AI 15 times in the marketing,
or having an AI support chatbot pop up. You can’t hardly have a conversation with someone without hearing
about it. The companies I dreamed of working for now have mandatory AI policies, or else you’ll be on the
chopping block.

Altogether, it feels like I’m suspended in motion. All I can do is sit and watch while the irreversible
effects of AI grow, time is passing, and more innovation is happening. Some software engineers are embracing
it. Some software engineers are actively working towards a future where their own jobs will be taken by AI.
Some of us just have to roll with the sunk costs on degrees that were made for a different time and get a job anyways.

We’re faced with harder questions now than in the time where things were just built; I wonder if there will be a world where people must choose to opt in or out of AI usage in their jobs; or if there will be the same banners per website like we get with cookies. Or, if it will continue steamrolling, or rather stagnate in the end.

How will macroeconomics and government policy get involved? (Bernie has a rather gloomy talk on this) I think that they will need to get involved, sooner or later.

For all of us that grew up enjoying the coding process: we might just be in the wrong moment in time.