If you are excited about the technology, sure. But if you are excited about the increase in productivity, unless you are a manager, I don't really understand it. Like, why? You are not working one hour less than before. If anything, it's more likely you'll get laid off and have trouble finding your next job.
> a natural desire for people to want to make things
... and all you can think of is "gains"?
If your job was 80-90% shoveling and one day you were offered use of an excavator, wouldn’t you find that exciting even while realizing the shoveling part of your career is probably dead?
The amount of code you produce in months of just typing must be enormous, no?
To me it seems no matter the plan there's many unplanned things that I need to handle, and that's where the time is spent. I never had a day in my career where I knew exactly what had to be done and just spent it typing...
Dictating what to exist and what not to to the machine is a power fantasy that's not going to stick around for long, because we'll inevitably reach the point where no human is needed in the loop (or at least not as often as they needed today).
Most people finally feel how they would've felt like if they actually put deliberate practice for hours to work on something. That's why you see comments going "wow, I rewrote this in Rust, and I don't even know Rust". You get to feel like someone who outputs Rust.
But, work IS exciting now - not sure for how long - because AI allows me to work almost at the speed of thought.
Nothing more, nothing less. It's FUN to be able to _just_ think.
I think it's mostly young graduates that have not been ground down by the wheel of labour just yet, and old/ex engineers that are able to build something after years of being out of practice.
Hard for me to be excited about being asked to do more for the same pay, to be measured on idiotic metrics, to compete with overconfident but inept people, when I'm reaching my 40s. I am at the peak of my engineering skills and the bottom of my patience.
I'm not saying that's _why_ they're excited. But it's a great time to be a builder, and a terrible time to be a worker ant.
- Jim Morrison
You can and should choose your employers. Saying you have no alternatives is disingenious. It's possible (and often worth it) to trade a big salary for meaning.
My employer significantly underpays us compared to the market, we could be (and many had been) earning multiple times more elsewhere, and yet we're happy to work there: we get reimbursed by meaningful work in a relaxed atmosphere.
In theory yes, but lots and lots of people will tell you how hard it is to switch jobs in real life, especially with personal circumstances.
A very simple example -- depending on your location, there can be very few employers you can choose from. Relocatiob is a major life decision.
Just talk to a few people, and that should be obvious.
Regarding the point in GP -- you can bet that most Meta employees don't believe in the company's vision, and they are just there for the (very good) paycheck. They are likely employable but choose not to.
Source: direct contacts