PMs Should Worry About AI Taking Their Jobs, Not SWEs

There’s a key difference between the work of PMs and SWEs that should make PMs super worried about keeping their jobs, now that LLMs are sometimes useful. Here’s what to know.

Quick job hunting tip for you: sitting outside on the ground in a suit while papers fly around you is not a good strategy. (Photo by Getty Images for Unsplash+. Unsplash+ license, used with permission.)

If you’re anything like me, you often wonder why PMs exist in most companies at all, let alone why they get paid anything remotely like what software engineers do.

After all, even an intern can be taught to write up work items (tickets) with 90% or higher accuracy.

So why do PMs even exist?

Well, the reality is, executives are typically making four to 100-plus times what software engineers are making.

So those same executives have no problem paying PMs the same salaries as SWEs, because PMs are the “clueless middle manager” layer of the organization.

Their role, as best as I can tell, is to overpromise and underdeliver.

I’ve had PMs screw me more times than I can count by brown-nosing and acquiescing to their bosses’ every ridiculous wish. Often in the guise of “data” or “the boss said so.”

But why would we need a clueless, expensive employee when anyone can write tickets and “collaborate…