Oldest is a senior this year so we’re talking after high school plans hardcore. He seems interested in computer stuff, kids always been a little smarter than me on computers, so I’m trying to guide him but we are beyond my knowledge. 

I’ve talked to lots of computer people that are out of work because of AI, is there any future in that field as AI improves? 

Is some college worth it in that field or is at all experience?

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Oldest is a senior this year so we’re talking after high school plans hardcore. He seems interested in computer stuff, kids always been a little smarter than me on computers, so I’m trying to guide him but we are beyond my knowledge. 

I’ve talked to lots of computer people that are out of work because of AI, is there any future in that field as AI improves? 

Is some college worth it in that field or is at all experience?

"Computer stuff" covers a very wide gamut. It depends on what field he might be interested in. I was in IT as a software developer before I retired so my perspective is going to be skewed towards that. I can tell you though that the industry (especially on the tech side as opposed to tech support or management) is constantly evolving and changing. I had to completely re-invent myself about once a decade and spent an entire career in between learning new things. I was hearing as far back as the early 1990s that software development was going to disappear for one reason or another. While the industry has gone through some ups and downs, by and large it's as strong as ever. Will AI impact that? Most definitely. In what form will that take? If I could tell you that, I'd be able to make a lot of $$$. ;-)

I think "knowledge experts" will always be important. AI will get better as you say and the more mundane tasks like writing simple repetitive code or manually overseeing testing of systems may decrease in importance. On the other hand, data analysis and systems integration may become more critical. The best advice I'd have is to become an expert in a general field but not specialize in any one particular aspect of it (especially an aspect that focuses on a particular hot tech of the moment). For example, learning Rust or Haskell might be a great idea but it's not necessarily wise to build your career on JUST one of those tools. It's better to understand the fundamentals and ideas behind a particular field you might be working in.

Hope that helps a little.

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I'm condescending. That means I talk down to you. 
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Right now, AI writes small blocks of code but it generally is terrible at writing optimized code. I don't know how quickly it will advance to be useful before something else is the next big thing.

It's good for working with docs, creating things, etc that all have lots of examples to train it with.

One of the huge issues right now is data privacy with the models. Do you want to turn it loose on your coding, data, etc? You lose control of it then or you have to create your own to keep everything private.



The best way I see to do it is to understand the why, where, when, how of solving the problem. Coding is using a language or a tool to do something that delivers to the requirements. If you understand how to talk to non-technical people, understand their requirements, put that into technical requirements, and then deliver it, you won't be replaced by AI for a long time.

I look for developers with a brain who can think, they don't need to know every little aspect of the coding language. If they know what they need to do, they can quickly come up to speed on how to do it in a new language. You can't fix stupid and I don't want to have to write everything I want done in very low-level details that I could just do it myself.

I don't know what I would recommend for school or just getting certs. Certs don't mean anything if you don't know why you are doing something. Schools may not have enough hands-on experience. Certs won't get the connections for jobs you may get from schools. So I see the advantages of both.

The areas that seem like they will be around for a while are security, cloud (no one is using there own servers), AI, Data Analytics (AI is starting to make progress here but understanding how data relates is still needed).

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Systems integration will never become obsolete, and its one area that AI might not be able to fully cover, depending on the complexity of the integration. As mentioned before, data mapping and mining, and security are also good specialties.

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"Remember Red, Hope is a good thing. Maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies."  - Andy Dufresne, The Shawshank Redemption

Thanks guys we’ve been looking at the local St. John’s for starters and it looks like UNF has a cyber security program that seems to interest him.

I always told him and all four of my kids you don’t have to do college but if you decide to do it I’ll pay for it and pick something that’s going to help you get a good entry level position.

I don’t want them to work their way up from the bottom like I did.

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Computer/cyber security is an ever expanding field....... It's a challenge to try to keep a few steps ahead ot the hackers/cyber criminals so...... always a need in that field.

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Oldest is a senior this year so we’re talking after high school plans hardcore. He seems interested in computer stuff, kids always been a little smarter than me on computers, so I’m trying to guide him but we are beyond my knowledge. 

I’ve talked to lots of computer people that are out of work because of AI, is there any future in that field as AI improves? 

Is some college worth it in that field or is at all experience?

"Computer stuff" covers a very wide gamut. It depends on what field he might be interested in. I was in IT as a software developer before I retired so my perspective is going to be skewed towards that. I can tell you though that the industry (especially on the tech side as opposed to tech support or management) is constantly evolving and changing. I had to completely re-invent myself about once a decade and spent an entire career in between learning new things. I was hearing as far back as the early 1990s that software development was going to disappear for one reason or another. While the industry has gone through some ups and downs, by and large it's as strong as ever. Will AI impact that? Most definitely. In what form will that take? If I could tell you that, I'd be able to make a lot of $$$. ;-)

I think "knowledge experts" will always be important. AI will get better as you say and the more mundane tasks like writing simple repetitive code or manually overseeing testing of systems may decrease in importance. On the other hand, data analysis and systems integration may become more critical. The best advice I'd have is to become an expert in a general field but not specialize in any one particular aspect of it (especially an aspect that focuses on a particular hot tech of the moment). For example, learning Rust or Haskell might be a great idea but it's not necessarily wise to build your career on JUST one of those tools. It's better to understand the fundamentals and ideas behind a particular field you might be working in.

Hope that helps a little.

100% agree with all you said

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"Remember Red, Hope is a good thing. Maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies."  - Andy Dufresne, The Shawshank Redemption