The death of web development education

Baldur Bjarnason, a developer, educator, and radio/TV producer, recounts how his career in various fields was economically unviable in the long run. He notes that his projects related to web development education dwindled one by one as he faced resistance from communities that classified people as either too "technical" or too "creative." Similarly, his peers who sold courses and training shut down their businesses due to the decline in demand for web development ebooks.

Software developers may not have switched to utilizing agents for coding, but they have increasingly relied on error-prone AI chatbots for web development "education." This shift has left independent educators struggling to earn a living from web development training, with Axel Rauschmayer, a prolific writer on JavaScript and TypeScript, reporting that his income from book sales dwindled to zero by 2026, forcing him to take his blog and books offline to prevent AI companies from stealing his work.

Developer Relations (DevRel) roles are pressured to justify their existence through short-term financial gains, leading to burnout and anxiety. Salma Alam-Naylor, who worked in this field, observes that developers have replaced authentic human collaboration with mindless scrolling for short-form content dopamine. She believes that the future looks bleak for educators, as their carefully crafted curriculums are often stolen and regurgitated by predictive algorithms, erasing the value of their experience, skills, and expertise.

Course creators like Josh W. Comeau have seen their revenue drop by 50% due to AI, with fewer people engaging with their content. YouTube content creator Kyle Cook reports a 50% decrease in views on his programming tutorials, resulting in half the income compared to a year ago. This trend of reduced revenue and engagement has made content creation for programming content unattractive and financially unsustainable, prompting many creators to shift their focus to AI models instead.

Rachel Andrew, a renowned technical writer and editor, discusses the impact of GenAI on technical publishing, noting that it breaks the relationship between subject matter experts and editors, leading to additional work for fact-checking and polishing. While she sees AI as a useful tool, she emphasizes that its output often requires review by experts, questioning whether AI truly increases productivity.