'Don't Learn to Code' advice from this tech CEO

Should you learn to code? Is AI taking over software engineering? From the perspective of a senior engineer in big tech

00:00 Intro
00:51 why jensen huang thinks you shouldn't learn to code
2:25 some weird hot dog analogy
3:16 Is AI replacing software engineers (Devin)
5:22 so should you learn to code or not
7:01 crying + apologizing video

*Socials*

#softwareengineer #ai #tech #nvidia #jensenhuang

[agent]

The guy selling picks and shovels says gold will replace money? Surely he's speaking objectively and not trying to sell more picks and shovels

[JordanEdmundsEECS]

“Don’t learn to code because AI will do it” is kinda like saying “don’t learn how to do math because calculators can do it”. Yes, technically it’s true, but the real value in knowing how to code is NOT that you can produce code, it’s that you understand the domains and problems that can be solved through software. And this will be valuable long after AI does all the coding (just as calculators do all the math).

[HemstitchedIrony]

I thought that "Don't learn to code" statement from Jensen was super disingenuous and harmful, like he knows it's not true he's just peddling AI. But who is going to have a better time using AI to code, the person who understands computer science and why the code works, or the layman who just thinks AI is a magic black box?

[Mighty_Atheismo]

I love this era of massive CEOs raising their profiles in the press saying unhinged, reality free, contrarian, delerious, technooptimistic drivel instead of by producing quality affordable products built by adequately compensated employees.

[steves]

Whenever I hear this “AI will take over everything” my mind goes to the Douglas Adam’s “Shoe Event Horizon” theory where every store eventually becomes a shoe store.

[spwashi]

I'd like to replace "learn to code" with "learn computer science" because languages change and people get discouraged by the noise

[FleischmannMVD]

There's this fantasy among top executives where you get to fire highly paid employees and replace them with AI and things end up working better than they did before. Jensen is clearly playing into that.

[HE]

I'll say this: I'm a game developer. And when it comes to coding/programming, there are many things that A.I. can't help me with. Only I know what I want. And A.I. can't get inside of my brain and properly execute what I want. It be difficult to communicate to A.I. on what I want and A.I. constantly get my ideas wrong. Also, some things can't even be found on Google, Stack Overflow, nor in any YouTube tutorial. So, of course it's important to know how to code and be able to code things yourself in these types of instances.

[NavaSDMB]

In the 1980s, Dad forbade two majors for me: business, because it was his field and he was up to HERE of seeing women having to be 3x as good to get valued 1/3 as much [*], and computers, because he thought that, like writing or typing before it, it would go from "only a few people can do it" to an everyday skill.

I've been working as a business IT consultant for over 20 years. Dad missed the difference between "the people who type into a computer" and "the people who prepare the computer so typing into it does something".

These people peddling so-called AI are also missing the point.

[*] The bad news are, that issue is not exclusive to that field. The good news is, it has gotten much better and keeps getting better.

[Neurotrace]

Absolutely spot on. This doesn't even include the fact that AI isn't actually smart. I looks for the statistically most likely answer given a set of inputs. Where does it get that answer? Human input. It will also always generate the most average answer. The best we can hope for with current AI is it will replace boilerplate writing (which it's pretty good at!) but I don't currently see a future where it's able to build novel solutions or actually translate large scale non-technical desires to a usable product

[msajib]

Also think about it this way- if we all stopped learning to code and become dependent on Devin or Chatgpt or whatever code generator then whoever controls that AI/software will control us all. If they deny us access to their software we won't be able to build anything. So I 100% believe that we should keep learning how to make software by ourselves, from ground up

[danielhortiguelaesturillo]

Senior Software engineer here. After watching your content I honestly think your opinion should be considered a voice authority throughout internet. You manage to compress and cleanly summarise what most real engineers claim in some way or another. Cheers for your work

[FabianGlace]

Computers are very good at doing maths, we should also stop learning maths.

[quinnlove]

Loving this YouTuber era for you!! I never follow any Techie/Coder/Compsci channels because they all seem super gimmicky and arrogant to me. They were all SO hype abt Web3 and crypto because it was going to “revolutionize commerce and banking and finance” but I haven’t heard a thing from them in years. Also we’re still using regular money, banks, etc LOL. Thanks for being on the skeptical side rather than another parrot telling us that this very brand new tech is going to change the world tomorrow so get in on it quick! And then promote your course/ebook on how to do it and make $10k of passive income every month LMAO
I’ve subscribed to you! Can’t wait to see what else you put out!

[se]

The Nvidia guy is like the general store owner telling you there's gold in the hills, so you'd better buy the shovels he's selling

[coolguyverycool]

I think the major issue with AI is that it requires a large dataset of code so it can replicate it. Let's assume the code in the dataset is of good quality for argument's sake. This well-fed LLM will still not be able to innovate and will lack knowledge of every advancement that occurs within technology. AI will always be behind the curve. On top of that, people don't live very long and they certainly don't work very long in the wide scope of things. What do we do when all of the currently knowledgeable programmers retire? For AI to improve, it's in AI companies' best interest to encourage people to learn how to code with AI so that they are prepared to fix things when they break, as well as have more code being produced so it can be fed to the AI.

[SwingingInTheHood]

"Who's going to program Devin?" Thank you! I've been asking that same question since this topic has blown up: Who's going to program (and maintain) the programs that are going to replace programmers?

[yugshende]

AI may not replace coding. But product development seriously needs a revamp. Some of these large tech visionaries are completely going off the rails it feels like and they're just building products to demonstrate technological strength rather than to build tech that helps people.

[matnreyes]

Please keep making long-form videos if you have the time. As others have put it, software engineering YouTubers have become incredibly focused on influencing and selling Web3 stuff. It’s nice to see a more realistic nuanced take. Especially for people trying to get in the field and juggling whether or not it’s advisable to even consider a CS degree in the current climate.

[johnpienta]

5:45 Brilliant. Yes. If you can't really understand how and why it makes the errors it does you shouldn't trust it to do ANYTHING. Which means at the very best you have to proofread everything it does.