Welcome to this edition of Ctrl+Alt+Deploy 🚀
I’m Lauro Müller and super happy to have you around 🙂 Let’s dive in right away!
If you’ve been following the newsletter for a while now, you probably noticed that we’ve been talking quite a bit about generative AI: techniques, developments, getting started, and so on.
With this edition also heavily focusing on the topic, you might start asking me, “Wait a sec, Lauro, your ever-so-catchy tagline says DevOps, Cloud, and AI, right? Why are you only talking about AI recently?”
Let me try to tackle that briefly here. And no, it’s not because everyone is talking about it. It’s also not because I think it’s cool (although I do think that). The main reason also goes back to the ever-so-catchy tagline: to help you stay relevant. As it happens, the field of generative AI, and more specifically its developments and implications for the software industry are moving and growing at a very fast pace. Every week there are new tools, new shiny little things to try, new frameworks, new promises, and new threats and attacks from multiple sides. The progress and adoption are happening at a much faster rate than any other currently existing technology, and we all have questions like “How do I keep up?”, “Do I need to become an AI expert?”, “Will development jobs disappear?”
I cannot express myself better than Martin Fowler does:
I’m often asked, “what is the future of programming?” Should people consider entering software development now? Will LLMs eliminate the need for junior engineers? Should senior engineers get out of the profession before it’s too late? My answer to all these questions is “I haven’t the foggiest”. Furthermore I think anyone who says they know what this future will be is talking from an inappropriate orifice. We are still figuring out how to use LLMs, and it will be some time before we have a decent idea of how to use them well, especially if they gain significant improvements.
One thing is certain, though: the industry is changing, and the wide adoption of AI will leave its mark. And to support my unwavering goal of helping you stay relevant, I do find that focusing on the developments and interesting conversations in the field is probably an effective strategy for the time being. You don’t need to become a master of AI (how many of us actually leverage the many search operators in Google?), but you do need to be aware of the developments and how they are transforming the necessary skills, capabilities, and responsibilities of the many fields and jobs in software engineering.
What is your take on this? Do you think I’m sending too much AI stuff? What would you know more in addition to that? Let me know by replying to this e-mail, I truly appreciate all your input! 😊