The funny thing about this piece is that bookstores themselves basically don't exist anymore. The bookstore owners had it far worse than the developers who had to keep up with the times.

I am in my 40s and yes seeing ones skills beeing Made obsolete is scary. But I still love the moment when I start with something new (language, tool, ...) whenever my job allowed me to dive into something new I am somehow grateful. And yes I do know the sentiment when I see something and catch myself thinking well this is the same as that which we had x years ago but actually it never really is or it is but now it really works. I dont fear AI will make me obsolete and for all the issues it has I am also astonished what is happening and want to know how it works. What other Industries offer this? That said I acknowledge that change comes with a lot of cognitive load which can cause Stress and anxiety and WE need ways to keep those in Check. I think this is also a Job of a company having to do with Tech, to Care for its workers (and everyone working in this industry)

There's nothing wrong with continuous learning. I knew that before choosing this career.

The issue with recent AI tech is that _I can't learn it_. I have to pay a lot of money (GPU renting or buying outrageous rigs) if I want to do even hello world AI stuff. The writing is on the wall, I will never be allowed to learn it, just to use it like a peasant.

This simply wasn't true before. I can read react code, roll my own, understand it. Same with any tech after the 90s. Heck, I can even do a primitive browser without having to buy GPU.

But AI is different. It will not allow you to learn past a certain point, and there is nothing you can do. And it's not about how smart or dedicated you are anymore. It's about money. Either you have huge datacenter money and you learn, or you don't and just play kids prompt guinea pig. It sucks.