So by now, the web is flooded with tutorials on how to use chatGPT for work, potential uses aside from work, ideas for researchers, and for almost anything we can imagine. Honestly, I feel as excited as I feel scared. This is creepy: the thing (as I call it fondly), helped me today solve a few bugs much faster than my usual workflow would have allowed (Google » StackOverflow » check potential answers » understand » blatantly copy code samples that don’t work » tweak again » fix the typo » enjoy life for about 5 seconds).
And the best part is that it explained it to me. It taught me and I’m a better developer now thanks to that thing.
I’m scared, I admit it. Life is going to change in so many ways that people can’t even imagine. But let’s go back to being a developer, there’s time for prophecies later.
Our job used to be coveted. Overpaid? Yes, we developers are (were?) overpaid, and that’s in part because until now, few were capable of translating human language into machine instructions. So we learned about patterns, and learned about syntax, and did all those things because we like to overcomplicate things. And now, our job is in danger. Some say that translators and copywriters are the first to fall. I’d say it’s the developers: the thing is capable of producing impeccable prose, but it’s mostly soulless. It’s boring. Yes, you can feed it with better ideas, tweak it, and enhance it, but everything that I’ve read so far is boring and machined. It feels like used plastic in the hands, it lacks something. But code? Oh, dear. The thing can write code. It can identify patterns. It can write with perfect syntax, it can make you cry when you give it a challenge. It’s like seeing those prodigy children playing piano better than you will ever be able to play in your lifetime —and they are just 2 years old.
So how can we survive? I’d argue that, as usual, if all we learned was how to write code, we’re dead. But if we are able to understand the needs of our society, and of our fellow human beings, then we might be ahead. The thing can make us stronger, more capable, albeit more dependent. It’s like the moment you are on an island, waiting to be rescued, and then a survival kit arrives, but it’s sealed, with those plastic seals that are impossible to open unless you have a knife.
We (developers) are not the survivor. We are the kit. We will become better developers and will be able to write applications much faster, but we will be more or less useless without the knife.
The good thing is that we can go back to the basics. We can go back to being humans and will rejoice at the opportunity to serve others with a humbled heart. We will reconnect with them, we will look them in the eyes, those who struggled to create a dynamic table, those who struggled with a software update; because now, we will all be equal.
Equally dependent, maybe, but equally at last.
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