this post was submitted on 15 May 2025
258 points (94.2% liked)
Work Reform
11991 readers
1079 users here now
A place to discuss positive changes that can make work more equitable, and to vent about current practices. We are NOT against work; we just want the fruits of our labor to be recognized better.
Our Philosophies:
- All workers must be paid a living wage for their labor.
- Income inequality is the main cause of lower living standards.
- Workers must join together and fight back for what is rightfully theirs.
- We must not be divided and conquered. Workers gain the most when they focus on unifying issues.
Our Goals
- Higher wages for underpaid workers.
- Better worker representation, including but not limited to unions.
- Better and fewer working hours.
- Stimulating a massive wave of worker organizing in the United States and beyond.
- Organizing and supporting political causes and campaigns that put workers first.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Software engineer here - I make more than this guy did and I have roughly the same amount of experience in the industry that he does (perhaps a smidge more, going off of his linkedin profile).
For folks who are saying that there's something off about this guy - that would not have mattered two or three years ago. At most he would have just been seen as a highly talented dev who was also slightly quirky.
For those who say it's not about AI and more about the economy - well, maybe. We do have a couple of major ongoing wars right now and moves over the last couple of months by the recent administration of the US haven't helped.
But I was around during the crash back in 2008, and this still feels different. Harder. Before, I had recruiters just banging on my door. Now, it's tough to past the automated screenings unless I have a contact at the company who can refer me there.
Meanwhile, I'm hearing from my co-workers about how great AI is - how they ran their code through it and it came up with a bunch of unit tests for them and some boilerplate code. Vibe coding is already a thing. So is using AI to write your resume and cover letters and applying to jobs.
Likewise, I look upon tools like Devin.ai with increasing trepidation. Today, LLMs aren't good enough to replace a single senior dev, despite a lot of investment happening to move things in exactly this direction. It probably won't happen tomorrow, or even next year. But in 25?
Let's just say that this article really hit home for me.
The other point here is - the day that a person with no coding ability can ask an LLM to create and deploy an entire website, write and manage a brand new app from scratch, is going to be a day that's a win for the people. We want to lower the barriers to entry here, to give this highly elite power to others. Actually, there shouldn't be an elite at all - there should just be a democracy where everyone is equally empowered to create and build great things.
Working in tech will not remain this vaulted, lofty place for much longer. If we aren't content creators, or controlling company owners, then ultimately tech workers like myself are in the same position as any other kind of worker - we work for someone else and serve only at their sufferance.
It’s really not ai, but the general economy. My company has been tightening down for longer than we have ai - only hiring in India. We’re in one of those phases again.
People want it to be ai but it just isn’t. Actually I’m a bit worried about my job because I don’t drink the coolaid. Ai is a nice additional tool to help me be more efficient and I use it when it can help. However I will not participate in these overblown claims within my company that we’re saving like 40% of our time because of ai. We all know you’re just making numbers up to ingratiate with the new boss
"The other point here is - the day that a person with no coding ability can ask an LLM to create and deploy an entire website, write and manage a brand new app from scratch, is going to be a day that's a win for the people"
Lets not have any illusions here. Currently this tool is available to the public with reasonable access cost only because it is not at that stage and needs a lot of testing and training. The moment it becomes capable of such feats, if it ever does, tech giants will monopolize the shit out of it.
I'm a senior mobile dev, and I needed a website for the app which I've never done before. AI was able to help me make one. Is it a well programmed website? Nope! Does it work? Yep!
With my knowledge I was able to troubleshoot problems the AI created, and fix things that came up, but it would have taken me so much longer to do that on my own, or I may have hired someone to make it for me.
I might need to do it better in the future, but for now it works and gets me off the ground.