“The Career Map 10 Years from Now” contains the prediction that engineers/programmers will eventually become cheap labor.

I think many engineers have considered “Will engineers be able to make a living 10 years from now?”

The book “The Career Map 10 Years from Now” mentions engineers and programmers in two places:

Programmers, who are said to have "jobs that won't leave you hungry," will eventually become cheap labor. In fact, I believe that if you can use Excel, you can also program and handle AI.

I think web services and app development are becoming easier year by year, so the barrier to entry for simply using them is getting lower.

On the other hand, the range of technologies that need to be caught up with is expanding year by year, so I feel that continuous learning efforts are essential.

Engineers Will Become Cheap

Engineers, who are cited as having “jobs that won’t leave you hungry,” are also one of the job categories with a high possibility of being weathered or replaced by automation AI. Especially those with high salaries will have their jobs taken away first. In the first place, programming is not a specialized profession that only some people can do. Cheap learning services for acquiring technology are emerging one after another, and eventually everyone will be able to do it as easily as Excel. People who can continue doing cutting-edge things are a different story, but everyone else is just a commodity. While it’s important to have aspirations for programming, it’s merely reading, writing, and arithmetic, and it’s better not to try to make it a specialized profession.

(omitted)

On the other hand, tied to management positions, a few experts are sufficient for personnel who perform system design. Which parts of the overall tasks should be assigned to machines, and which parts to humans? Such design should be done by creative top-of-the-top people.

System design and thinking about business logic probably won’t disappear for a while. Also, if you improve your design skills, that way of thinking should be applicable to any job.

That’s all from the Gemba where I want to avoid being left without food.

Images and text are all quoted from “The Career Map 10 Years from Now”