@liw I'm not going to lie; to me this time *feels* different.

I learned to program at about the same time you did, though I was younger then. And it might not *be* different; I might just be easier to worry now.

@datarama @liw I'm of three minds myself: maybe LLMs will take over (whether they're any better or not, the history of programming is full of such mistakes); maybe they'll fall by the wayside; maybe they'll become a useful tool, in effect the next step in the evolution of programming languages, but with skilled programmers still needed.

I'm also at the point where I can retire whenever I want, and perhaps that is just as well.

@datarama @liw Yeah, were I 20 years younger I'd be worried too.

(But I'm an unusual case--no kids, no mortgage, high savings rate. A dozen years ago I was concerned with the stability of my job, checked with my financial advisor, and discovered I'd have been OK even had I stopped working for keeps then. Would that everyone was in that position.)

@datarama @liw I forgot to mention no car! I do have three cats, but they don't cost nearly as much as kids.

It will not surprise you that I am on the spectrum too. My late wife was probably borderline.

It was really freeing to me when I wised up and asked the financial advisor. (And was glad I already had one, courtesy of my credit union.) Heartily recommended if available. Fed him my current assets and amounts of the several pensions I had pending, highballed a guess of how much I'd want to spend per month, he plugged the numbers into a program that made reasonable assumptions about inflation and computed I'd be OK until at least age 90. Likely much longer now.

That leaves the problem of boredom/feeling useful--I enjoy my work and that I am helping people who deserve it. (I work at a university.) But I've developed enough other interests that I ought to be OK, and tested it some years back when I got burned out and took several years off working.

In any case I hope you find a comfortabler solution.