Software folks, what’s your Plan B?

Question

If LLMs are as disruptive to our industry as some predict, do you have a fallback profession in mind?I am thinking of switching to a health profession, as those still have enough human interaction and legal guardrails to prevent automation from being a serious threat for the next few decades.

kaesar14 · Accepted Answer

I&rsquo;ve been thinking hard about it and my best current plan is hoping my Series B startup moons and I have enough of a nest egg to work a service job and live day to day off wages. Retraining efforts are gonna hit us all. There will be no escape.

the_only_law · Answer

Unfortunately not, if programming gets automated away, or if increases in productivity push me out of the field, then I can’t imagine the other things that intrigue me aren’t going to face the same fate. I had planned on going back to school for a while for something else, but the process would be very difficult and very expensive, and frankly I’ve given up on that idea as anything but a pipe dream.
Funny enough programming was always my Plan B. I never wanted to become a software developer, at least not the time/way I did, but I’ve been stuck here because the old golden handcuffs. I’m uneducated so I guess it’s back to unskilled labor.
I suppose when the time comes I’ll just have roll with the punches and figure things out then. I tend to do better with that sort of thing in a crisis than I do in the good times anyway, where I mostly just get complacent.

gregjor · Answer

I'll hang around until I retire, picking up the work abandoned by programmers leaving the field. LLMs can't do everything. Any programmer who doesn't advance their skills (technical, business, and people) enough to compete with LLMs won't survive long-term competing with human programmers. In my own (40+ years) career in programming I've seen many people get stuck at the expert beginner[1] stage, if they even got that far. LLMs can replace them in some contexts, and perhaps in more contexts before too long. I don't worry about LLMs putting me out of business, though.[1] https://daedtech.com/how-developers-stop-learning-rise-of-th...

MeteorMarc · Answer

Think I need a plan C, because B was on quantum computing.

turtleyacht · Answer

You'll only be allowed to do what the LLMs prescribe, even if you're an MD. Legal, compliance, and insurance may overwhelmingly favor that.On the other hand, a HIPAA-compliant white-label LLM could be really useful to a doctor. Could this disrupt or enhance PA and NP roles?

hotpotamus · Answer

Life of crime seems pretty popular already.

crop_rotation · Answer

If you have seen recent threads, the most popular plan is denial.

Software folks, what’s your Plan B?

If LLMs are as disruptive to our industry as some predict, do you have a fallback profession in mind?
I am thinking of switching to a health profession, as those still have enough human interaction and legal guardrails to prevent automation from being a serious threat for the next few decades.

I’ve been thinking hard about it and my best current plan is hoping my Series B startup moons and I have enough of a nest egg to work a service job and live day to day off wages. Retraining efforts are gonna hit us all. There will be no escape.

Think I need a plan C, because B was on quantum computing.

You'll only be allowed to do what the LLMs prescribe, even if you're an MD. Legal, compliance, and insurance may overwhelmingly favor that.
On the other hand, a HIPAA-compliant white-label LLM could be really useful to a doctor. Could this disrupt or enhance PA and NP roles?

Life of crime seems pretty popular already.

If you have seen recent threads, the most popular plan is denial.