> Looking at the code you’ve been paid to write over the past few years, how much of that can you honestly say is truly novel?
While the code I write is rarely novel, one of the primary intrinsic motivators that keeps being a software engineer is the satisfaction of understanding my code.
If I just wanted software problems to be solved and was content to wave my hands and have minions do the work, I'd be in management. I program because I like actually understanding the problem in detail and then understanding how the code solves it. And I've never found a more effective way to understand code than writing it myself. Everyone thinks they understand code they only read, but when you dig in, it's almost always flawed and surface level.
Intrinsic reward is always part of the compensation package for a job. That's why jobs that are more intrinsically rewarding tend to pay less. It's not because they are exploiting workers, it's because workers add up all of the rewards of the job, including the intrinsic ones, when deciding whether to accept it.
If I have to choose between a job where I'm obligated to pump out code as fast as possible having an LLM churn out as much as it can versus a job that is slower and more deliberate, I'll take the latter even if it pays less.
While the code I write is rarely novel, one of the primary intrinsic motivators that keeps being a software engineer is the satisfaction of understanding my code.
If I just wanted software problems to be solved and was content to wave my hands and have minions do the work, I'd be in management. I program because I like actually understanding the problem in detail and then understanding how the code solves it. And I've never found a more effective way to understand code than writing it myself. Everyone thinks they understand code they only read, but when you dig in, it's almost always flawed and surface level.