When I made this comparison I was trashed in the comments. Not at the hyperbole of it (I don't think it is), that they are in poverty now while we are not. That we should have saved money. Which, shocker, not all of us work in California with those salaries... At this point as a SWE my only goal is to try and find IT employment to support loved ones and keep my visa till I get permanent residence. Fuck everything, just survive at this point. I loved programming, if that is ripped from me, then survive is all I want to do. That or jump in front of a train.

Damn, how do people have such a bleak outlook. While I cannot see anything but amazing things ahead for me as a engineer/programmer.

I don't mean to be so dark... it is just I get so worried about the future. It might be age, it might be that i clawed my way to a tiny bit of stability. Things could be great, I actually have seen you in a few threads and you always say the same thing that you love programming because you can focus on global ideas now. That to me sounds fun too. I like both. I am just worried you need less of those people which means more unemployment. For me when I say programming is ripped from me I mean it in all sense of the word.

Hey, I'm really sorry this is happening to you. I hope you are able to find that same meaning in your life, whether it's a continuation of your coding career, or another problem-solving field.

Change is hard, but it is possible, and one thing humans are good at that machines still can't do is to make our own meaning.

Wishing you the very best.

I've been in this industry for a long time, and have been through a few fundamental shifts, and of course, I have adapted to and valued change throughout. But I have never felt nearly as pessimistic/doubtful about the future of software development as I do now.

Nothing will make me happier than to be wrong about what I see coming.

> Interestingly, this is what a lot of coal miners in West Virginia feel, too.

When they got rid of the graphic artists, I remained silent; I was not a graphic artist.

Then they came for the technical writers, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a technical writer.

When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out.

With apologies to Martin Niemöller.

I think you should delete this, my dude.

> Interestingly, this is what a lot of coal miners in West Virginia feel, too.

I doubt there were that many who actually enjoyed digging coal as opposed to just having a relatively well paying job

Feel free to substitute it with print journalists, who over the last few decades have watched their careers vanish and replaced with something quantifiably less valuable to society.