> In reality, we’re standing at a fork in the path: one where we can either embrace the (currently) far-off notion of fully automated software development or, instead, acknowledge the work of a software developer is much more than just writing lines of code.<p>I see a lot of optimism that is fundamentally based on "the code" being important and everyone saying "my bad" and going back to paying lots of developers and they all get 2x - 3x more than everyone else.<p>I don't think the jobs are coming back at all. Companies will just keep optimizing to spend the least on development they can, spend the least during uncertain times they can, and they will just lower expectations while waiting for AI to catch up. The future is very small number of people coaxing stuff out of AI.<p>IMHO developers should be making products and AI should be filling these roles for you to produce products without a company supporting you. AI should be taking your solo-software to the next level. That's what AI is doing for the collective "them", and the reason "them" is doing it is because there are 2 - 3 billion people who can buy stuff online. Your digital products are also stuff they can buy online.