> AI replacing outsourcing and (sadly) junior SWEs is more likely than it just eliminating coding jobs across the board. Lord help them when our generation of senior SWEs retires, though

Not them

It's on current software devs to make sure this doesn't happen! People in senior positions need to be loud and aggressive about telling the money people that we cannot rely on AI to do this work!

Every time you shrug and say "yeah the LLM does ok junior level work" you are part of the goddamn problem

What problem? It's not my problem if my employer is screwed after my generation retires. That's the shareholders or owners' problem. The people making 2-10x my salary upstream of me in the org chart are being paid that presumably because they have such greater wisdom and foresight than I do. If I'm the CTO or have very significant equity, maybe I'll talk about restarting hiring of juniors. Otherwise I'll just sit and wait for the desperate consulting offers. It'll be like the COBOL boom in the late 90s.

Note: That isn't my retirement plan, but it'll just be a fun source of extra money if I'm right.

Why on earth would I not let the "money people" dig their own grave? There's no downside for me and lots of upside.

That’s not my problem. My incentive is that I have an open req and my job depends on my ability to get projects done on time, on budget and meets requirements. Why would I use my budget to hire a junior dev? They do negative work. Why would I when especially with remote work, I can hire a mid level developer or “senior” [sic] developer who lives in MiddleOfNowhere Nebraska who is willing to work cheaply?

Even before remote work, you could easily pull a mid level developer with 3-5 years of experience who is probably underpaid for only 20% more than a junior dev.

I will be living in Costa Rica somewhere retired by the time that is an industry problem best case or be able to command a higher salary best case.