DEV Community

Discussion on: What are you going to do if/when your position gets automated?

Collapse
 
tropicalchancer profile image
Chance

That's a great (and tough) question.

A strong belief in both the necessity and joys of lifelong learning helps, though of course has its limits. Many of the top jobs (or to be more specific, skills) people seek now didn't exist 20 years ago, and I suspect many of the jobs people strive to get 20 years from now will be equally as novel or augmented.

From a career and financial perspective, the topic of "skills stability" is going to be a really interesting one over the next few decades as the pace of change continues to move rapidly.

Collapse
 
dfockler profile image
Dan Fockler

The idea of skills stability is interesting. I think we'll need more abstract skills that can be applied to many similar situations. For example I see more and more language agnostic companies, where you need to know the concepts of how the software is built moreso than the details. There will always be a need for people that can think abstractly about problems. Especially as we automate more and more industries, we'll create new, more complex problems to solve at a higher level of abstraction.

Collapse
 
jenc profile image
Jen Chan

I agree, somehow we need to be prepared to make a case for how skills are transferrable and relevant. I think of the auto industry or grocery checkouts and think it is highly probable the technical side and rigour won't matter as much very soon.
There will still be problem solving work though

Thread Thread
 
dfockler profile image
Dan Fockler

My hope is that programming will get less technical and more creative. Of course those things aren't mutually exclusive though. I think webdev work will go the way of Photoshop where you can get the basics just by learning how to use a computer.