programming is fun and all of that is fine but how do I compete with a developer with a 200$/500$ Claude subscription? I was fine with making pennies,now I can't even make that.
I was fine with competing against thousands of people who claimed competence, I could prove it by making stuff, but now I am just a dot in an ocean that people were wholeheartedly glad to discard and i have no way to get back on the saddle.
is there something I'm missing that i should be doing?
What opportunities are there locally at the intersection of least fiat investment and most forward curve return?
nothing of substance, most of the market is stagnant because of uncontrolled inflation, maybe hardware repair/refurbishing with a small capital or something similar because most people can't buy new.
You could consider strategies used by engineers in high-income countries when faced with outsourcing/offshoring/immigration:
- Work in industries that require a local human, licensing, and/or citizenship. Law, defense, civil engineering, etc. It's not clear to me how robust these requirements are in the future, however.
- Set up legal barriers to prevent people from using AI to replace you. (The equivalent mostly didn't work for the engineers in high-income countries in my view. Note that I am not advocating for this, just listing it as an option.)
- Start your own business where you aren't directly doing engineering projects in return for money. Could be selling products direct to consumers instead, for example. Engineering can still be involved, of course. (Most likely to be successful in my view.)
thanks for the suggestion, I have thought about it. but I don't know where to begin, there's so much competition, it's so hard to buy a politician nowadays.
I think I will look into the third suggestion instead, I will try to look into a niche area with not much competition.