I’m kind of sick of being a dev. I hate AI with a passion.
I hate the hallucinations, I hate slop, I hate megacrops, I hate the environmental impacts, I hate the massive costs. I could go on but you get the picture.
At work I often times have to review vibe code slop from people who clock in 9 to 5 and don’t give a fuck (I respect that, I just wish your fucking code wasn’t slop)
I’m sick of it, I’m sick of hearing about AI tooling or new models or bro agentic actions bro based on your documentation bro.
I want to switch careers, so which career is not ruined by AI?
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I work in a datacenter. I rack servers, I look after the cooling system, the generators, the ups’s, etc. I won’t ever be replaced by AI. Without me there is no AI. And I barely interact with it. I play with toys all day.
The environmental impacts still bother me. But IT has always been wasteful, even before AI. I hate recycling days when I see exactly how much plastics, styrofoam and metals are going to the dump.
Previously the equation was trying to get as much processing out of every kilowatt-hour, now the equation is trying to use as much energy as possible. The impact of AI eclipses IT loads from before by a massive margin, and because of the theory behind it will never, ever do any better than it is right now. The environmental impact should bother you because it’s massive and getting bigger.
And you’re helping set it up and keep it going. I know what it’s like to run a datacenter, I did it for a decade and a half. I’m not going to say I’m making more money now, but I do sleep much better.
My datacenter doesn’t host AI. Most of my servers process data coming from the square kilometer array in Australia. We’re looking for aliens
Problem is, cost of living is so extremely high where I live and I don’t know what else I would do to make enough money to stay here. I’m really good at this job, and I don’t have very many other talents
It could be a lot worse too. Our cooling system is a closed loop so we aren’t using fuck tons of water like newer datacenters. In the winter we can mostly get away with air cooling from outside air. And the power in my city is all from hydro dams
CAD specialist.
It’s gonna be a while, but I don’t expect it to be completely safe.
My backup is construction management which I am also very much qualified to do. I very much doubt that’s in any danger in the near future.
If both of those get completely taken over by AI, I’ll revert to being a carpenter. Not ideal, but if that gets taken over by AI, we’re at the point where workers have become entirely obsolete, at which point either universal basic income is a thing, or it’s time for a violent uprising against our AI overlords.
Airline mechanic. AI is not going anywhere near us and if it does it will be trained on absolute garbage and be wrong 100% of the time.
“AI can’t replace you but an AI salesman can convince your boss to replace you will AI.”
Barber
Chef
Event operations (we will always need competent people on the ground who can quickly make decisions when the inevitable moment plans go awry, this happens in every live event)
Or I guess building the AI?
I am with you. Do accounting and tried to use our AI, it’s ok at some stuff but only the stuff that our intern could do for less cost than we are paying to license the AI. Fucking hate how it’s stuffed into inappropriate jobs. I think that sort of program has a place, sort through enormous datasets and give us the interesting bits, can help with DNA science, it’s not useless, but it can’t even balance a bank account.
Prostitution.
I am not saying it’s the ideal career choice for most people, however it isn’t something ruined by AI…
And there are opportunities to progress into a madam or pimp. Plus you get a funky hat with a feather, I’m unsure how this process goes though (I would imagine there must be some sort of application process for the hat).You cant get AI to do physiotherapy. So maybe become a PT assistant.
Tell me more about … ooh, physiotherapy.
isn’t safe
live performer in circus will be safe (for some time) seriously, you’ve seen how this works, suddenly creativity can be achieved with little bit of randomness robots which should help us in menial tasks are surprisingly taking over art and creative things i mean it will take a while to fully take over but a lesson learnt is that you just need to throw in huge data to make it look wise and inteligent
I was going to say my industry, sewer and water but now they’re forcing cameras with AI in them into our with vehicle to “save on insurance.” More like spy on us and figure out why we’re messing around with one fire hydrant so long.
I hate it here.
I’m a local truck driver for a smallish local trucking company. My company installed new dash cams with both internal and external cameras. Every truck I know has at the internal camera at least covered in tape, if not removed completely (Mine is gone completely). If my company required the internal cameras, at least half the fleet would likely quit and it would be catastrophic for the company.
One of the perks of the job is being alone and just chilling out most of the day. You don’t get to watch me.
Yeah I’m moving across the country soon so it won’t be my problem but 3/4 of the people who work there are already looking for jobs because of other micromanaging shit that’s started happening. We’re the highest producing, lowest issue location and all of a sudden they’re treating us like toddlers. Everyone is pissed.
I find it unreal that this is legal. This is why we need unions.
I have coals in the fire for unionizing my industry. Waiting until later this year where I have a better financial situation as a backup plan in case I need to do it unemployed.
But when I’m done, my friends and co-workers will be unionized.
Good luck!
I’ve grown up in a country where unions are as natural as air. The unions are so strong that there basically is very limited employment laws - and no minimum wage; there’s just not need for the state to intervene that much because unions are EVERYWHERE. And yes, a Big Mac meal costs a fortune because employees actually have to make a living. I’m ok with it.
Funny enough, our entire industry is unionized except for our sector. From the producers to the plants, everyone is protected except for what we do. It shouldn’t be difficult to get us unionized but it’s still a rather uphill battle. And talking to some of my co-workers, everyone is willing but I’m the only one taking the lead on it.
I’m there too. But not because AI. I just reviewed a PR by a newb. Code was fine. I could reason about what they did. It worked correctly. Then I read the other devs comments and what they requested done and now code that worked correctly and was easy to reason about is buried in abstraction that isn’t really needed but it “makes the code much better”. No it doesn’t.
That’s what I’m sick of. If I’m reading code and the logic that actually does something is buried that irritates me.
Some abstraction is great. Otherwise we would program with physical switches. But abstraction just because you think it makes the code look better is shit.
I recently had to work without an IDE on some code made by a *thunder crack* Java Senior. There was 4 redirections in 3 different files for something that, hopefully, got inlined at compile time. I swear it gets worse with age.
I’m pretty sure “sick of Java abstractions” was one of the motivations behind Golang.
Day training and rescue. You could probably get AI and a robot to teach Pavlovian conditioning in a controlled environment (screen shows symbol, dog gives appropriate response, machine dispenses treat), but behavior modification, leash training in different environments, manners, social conditioning around other dogs/people/animals? A substantial number of humans can’t even train their own dogs to sit, much less behave in public. That’s why I have a job.
isn’t safe
Elaborate. I’d like to hear your opinions on why.
it’s doable, i can see how it can be automated in simulated environment but don’t worry it won’t happen soon
I’m a lathe operator. No AI there yet. And my lathe runs Linux too…
Inference of 3D models exists. Combined with a rule deck of what the machine is capable of (i.e. so tools aren’t broken) I think you could be very close to “prompt to object” prototyping flows — if they don’t already exist.
Still might need a pair of hands to clean up.
Now, how many botched tries are people willing to to pay the material cost of, who knows?
I love being a dev. I love being able to build things faster. I love solving an issue. I love working on a great product I believe in. I love working for a company that puts the well-being of its employees above its profits.
Nothing you’ve written is about the impact of “AI” (whatever this means) and it has everything to do with how you decide to work.
And who you go to work for… most of us aren’t so lucky
Yes, I am insanely lucky. But this took fucking effort.
What about robotics?
Working in the trades is probably somewhat safe for a while.
Honestly I’d just go for something that you’re interested in. If AI displaces a ton of white collar workers, the system will probably collapse and we’ll all go mad max. In the meantime have fun!
I work in fiber installation. I already have to deal with an ai copilot micromanaging me all day. Unless you are self employed, I doubt there’s going to be any choice.
Theyre rolling out cameras in our with vehicle with AI in it to tell when our eyes aren’t on the road and shit like that. From what I can tell, it’s just been alerting constantly for no reason at the people testing it out.
Quit.
Seriously.
I’m moving in 4 weeks so, I have no option but to quit lol
