The role will remain, but the job will change dramatically into one with a higher level of product focus. The "software craftsmen" type will become more obsolete than they are already. RAM used to matter. Now, who even looks at how much RAM their app uses?

And that is why everyones phones an computers are slow because every application eats as much RAM as possible.

Obligatory Comic: https://x.com/iamdevloper/status/1072503943790497798

I constantly look at how much RAM other people's software uses. I have to work hard to keep it down, otherwise my computer hangs. I would appreciate if software authors cared a bit more.

But will you pay for it? Appreciation isn't very valuable.

Most of the worst software is produced by organisations with plenty of resources, who place themselves as gatekeepers to coerce me into using their awful software. (I have no idea what they get out of this, in most cases.) This means I have to, eventually, choose between "having a job" and "not buying a new computer". Either choice leaves me with less money to give to those who write software I appreciate.

And this is why we have tons of trash software that runs like garbage, and nothing but low quality trash products on the market. People who don't give a fuck about anything but profit.

> Now, who even looks at how much RAM their app uses?

I do, constantly. In large swaths of software engineering, RAM and other resources are still scarce enough to require careful consideration in their use.

Both product and middle management seems just as ripe a target for automation as coding. Why do you think that can't be automated away?