May 25, 2024
Coding has been in decline for years
For years, I have been saying that coding is not the most profitable way for an experienced developer to make money.
As AI assistants proliferate, it’s starting to look like coding will become even MORE commoditized.
So what can you do instead?
Even in the AI, there are still profitable ways to monetize your experience if you’ve been coding for a long time.
Here are a few real-world examples:
- Reviewing RFPs before sending them out
- Sanity checking incoming proposals and quotes
- Disputing hours entries on invoices from outside dev shops (oh, the irony!)
- Translating business needs into dev speak and vice versa
- Planning data migrations
- Suggesting application architecture
- Prioritizing features based on estimated dev effort and ROI
- Sourcing outside agencies, consultants, software, and other tools
- Vetting applicants for full time dev positions
- Advice on salary negotiation for dev hires
- Coaching junior devs in various technical areas
- etc etc etc
Eventually, some of these will probably decrease in value if AI coding assistants continue to improve.
But for now, there are buyers who still place value on these sorts of things, and will pay good money for them.
Sell your brains, not your hands.
Your smarts, not your labor.
Outcomes, not inputs.
Yours,
—J