November 11, 2019
Specialization is for insects
Only a few years ago you could hear surreal discussions about the subtle differences between “frontend developer”, “frontend engineer”, “frontend designer” and a bunch of other random job titles.
If there is one single thing that AI deserves credit for, it’s that it has freed us from all this bullshit. Nowadays, more and more often in job ads we read “Full Stack developer”, “software engineer” and I even came across the good old-fashioned “WebMaster”.
No one wants to pay anymore for a developer who knows only a single language or even a single framework inside out. Hyper specialization is over, and the era of total football has begun.
Johann Cruyff (1947-2016) - Legendary player and coach of the Netherlands and leader of total football
Total Football was a revolutionary style of play that characterized the Netherlands and Ajax in the 1970s. Led by coach Rinus Michels, players constantly switched roles to create spectacular moves and disorient the opponents.
The long-term trend now is to look for developers who have a full understanding of the dynamics behind a complex software project rather than writing the best possible code to style a button. Simple coding, and perhaps even more, will increasingly be the responsibility of AI.
Bad news. This doesn’t mean we’ll all continue to work as “total programmers” in the future. The number of people needed on each project will dramatically decrease. Most projects won’t even need a human architect anymore.
It’s a truth that needs to be told because too many people continue to deny it or invoke the so-called “meritocracy” that they claim will save the most talented ones. But in my opinion, the best way to approach change is to view it with clear-eyed realism.
In the meantime, let’s enjoy total football.