"Don't Learn to Code, But Study This Instead..." says NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang

Hi kids! I am a software developer since 90's, and I've heard this statement multiple times during my career. The first time I heard it was back in the 90's when Java was invented. The statement back then was that since you could write object oriented code, then coding was so easy that every human on the planet could do it, and no software developers was no longer needed in the future.. However it turned out the opposite all the times in the past. Maybe it will be different now that Generative AI is available? Well... My observations during the last year has shows the complete opposite once again. As a software developer I have never before seen such increase in demand for my skills and services from my customers. I need to turn down 90% of all projects that need my help to bring AI tools and software to their businesses. Sadly all my colleagues face the same problem. We need more software developers to be able to meet this enormous increase in demand. So if you ask me if becoming a software developer is useless nowadays, I will say definitely not! Come and work with me! :) Wish you the best!! P.S. My english is bad, I know. I am from Sweden.

learning coding is not just learning coding but learning the fundamental things behind

the fundamental structure, logic, & code behind the magic is very important & will continue to be valuable.

I understand Jensen's point. He suggests that in the near future, AI may enable anyone to create software effortlessly, akin to playing tic-tac-toe. However, for highly intricate software, a single prompt may not suffice. You'll need to provide AI with detailed instructions regarding workflows, procedures, processes, and more. This necessitates expertise in your chosen field to effectively communicate with AI and ensure the development of the desired software.

Every CEO: "Don't learn this or that. We already did it."

Never take a CEO's word at face value. There is always an ulterior motive behind the things they say. It's not necessarily intentionally sinister, but the reality is that it's in their best interest to guide the masses (that's you and me) toward the kind of things that benefit them and their companies. I have nothing against individual CEOs personally, but they are the public-facing corporate voice of their companies. Even if a CEO made an absolutely factual statement, such as "the sun is hot," I would still have doubts about their motives. That's not to say that it is useless to pay attention to what they say, because we can gauge their intent by the character of their message. However, do not base your entire professional career around their suggestions. As long as computers exist, there will always be a need for software developers building the foundation. I am not a software engineer, I just want to encourage people to think for themselves. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk. <(^_^<)

Learn learn, learn upskill, upskill upskill while the standard of living of middle-class goes down down down and down this world of high technology looks more and more like hell. I don’t wanna learn all the time I want to relax and enjoy life ffs

Been beating myself up a bit that I sold my 53 shares of NVDA at $303 each back in May 2023. Now thinking of liquidating a few other investments to rebuy but afraid to do so. I also currently have 500k in savings making me next to nothing.

In other words: "Give us the power to decide and design YOUR life's point of view please? "

If I had a kid, I would encourage them to learn to create simple things with technology that solves problems. That has always been profitable.

Although I have a computer science background, I'm not a great programmer, so AI has been a game changer for me. I do find that it helps to be enough of a programmer that you can either catch mistakes, or help the AI fix them through testing. And yes, domain expertise is also critical. Interesting side note: I have a coworker who is a phenomenal programmer, but doesn't have good communication skills - he has given up on AI, saying that he can't get it to do anything useful or reliable! In order to effectively use AI as a programming assistant, I think the ideal skills (in order) are: communication, domain expertise, testing/validation, and finally some amount of programming.

I do not "code". I develop Software and have been doing it for 30+ years. I asked ChatGPT to design a QuadTree in C++ that has a user defined interface to set the node levels, add and delete nodes from the root down to the specified level and render the entire thing in OpenGL. NOT. It failed hard. Then I asked if it to write C++ to implement a moving average FFT filter. NOT. I do not see ChatGPT or AI replacing Software Engineers anytime soon, if at all.

I’ve been coding for 28 years now and what makes a great developer is knowing how to elegantly organize your thoughts and express them in code. I’ve seen many devs that know a language or framework really well but were awful at writing good code. So you will really need to know how to come up with great solutions for complex problems and clearly express those solutions to AI.

This sounds like telling people to stop learning math because we made calculators 😂

Until 2023, I was studying architecture and high-density logistics. The tools and technology I've discovered are cutting-edge. This inspired me to do more, faster, to learn from mistakes quickly, optimize output, and increase value tenfold. Today, I'm delving into understanding Python, coding, and training LLMs with data from the past decade. All of this is aimed at improving building processes, optimizing time, materials, and resources. Your classes and videos provide wonderful encouragement for reinventing myself.

duuuuuude, you have my gratatude!!! I have completly lost it when I heard the Jensen Huang's speech about AI and programming. Now BACK TO WORK. GO! GO! GO00000000001

I just stumbled upon you and the content is fantastic. I feel like you keep a healthy balance between your own personal opinions that are also very genuine and the content you are relaying. I have been saying to my younger brothers exactly the same for the last 4 years since I started prompt engineering - that they should pursue life sciences and gain domain expertise (personally I also studied physics and chemistry and went on to IJSO during high school, but I left that path to just help businesses, get to know and travel the world). I wholeheartedly believe that humanizing AI and setting up social safety nets is the way to go and I love what you guys are doing with Synthminds. I might get back into neuroscience like I originally wanted to :P

First step, remove coding interviews from all Nvidia job applications.

@Goda Go. Great video! I am in the middle of a Gen AI for business certificate, and we're leveraging Python to prompt engineer at scale. I need to become more versed in Python, but with the assistance of LLMs, I have become a faster learner in this space. You hit the nail on the head; people need to learn how to solve problems. It is less about the code and more about identifying sustainable solutions. We ought to push ourselves and dream more. Jensen Huang's notion of life engineering is a prime example of that. Instead of viewing this as potential for mass job replacement, we should look at AI as a mass capability enhancement. Thanks!

I start to feel that most of the AI bros who tell you to stop learning programming are just trying to beat the competition in a tighter job market. All of these people have a personal agenda. Critical thinking is probably the most useful skill out there to avoid being manipulated by online gurus.