<div dir="ltr"><p style="color:rgb(14,16,26);background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt">Re leverage</span><span style="background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> AI to start your own business - I concur and </span><span style="background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt">am of the opinion</span><span style="background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> that this is one of the best options. It may not be immediately possible for people who need to put </span><span style="background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt">the food</span><span style="background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> on the table and are short on savings. </span><span style="background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt">If LLMs </span><span style="background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt">really</span><span style="background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> provide value, then </span><span style="background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt">smart people</span><span style="background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> with </span><span style="background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt">professional</span><span style="background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> software development experience should be able to benefit from </span><span style="background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt">it</span><span style="background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt">.</span><span style="background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> </span></p><p style="color:rgb(14,16,26);background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"></p><p style="color:rgb(14,16,26);background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt">Some motivation can be found in </span><a target="_blank" href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/100-Startup-Reinvent-Living-Create/dp/0307951529" class="editor-rtfLink" style="background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;color:rgb(74,110,224)"><span style="background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt">https://www.amazon.co.uk/100-Startup-Reinvent-Living-Create/dp/0307951529</span></a><span style="background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt">, and if</span><span style="background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> you need business co-founders, YC Cofounder matching is a great place to start. </span></p><p style="color:rgb(14,16,26);background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"></p><p style="color:rgb(14,16,26);background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt">I also would be wary of adding "AI-native" to a CV. </span><span style="background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt">It may land in the inbox of a person who would think that a person just burned a few thousand pounds worth of tokens and can't think for themselves <a href="https://arxiv.org/pdf/2601.20245">https://arxiv.org/pdf/2601.20245</a> (This is Anthropic research </span><span style="background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt">btw</span><span style="background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt">).</span><span style="background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"> </span></p></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, 11 Feb 2026 at 14:47, lrug.flaring659--- via Chat <<a href="mailto:chat@lists.lrug.org" target="_blank">chat@lists.lrug.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div><div>Hey Michael, it certainly does.</div><div><br></div><div>The whole market’s been down for a few years, but Ruby, one of my all-time favs, seems to have almost disappeared from the visible job market entirely.</div><div><br></div><div>Two of my least favourite ecosystems, JS and Python, have roughly thirty to sixty times more opportunities respectively.</div><div><br></div><div>I’ve already seen a couple of businesses go all in on the AI hype and bury themselves under mountains of tech debt, so it definitely still needs people that know what they’re doing to build something sustainable. I’ve also seen quite a few mid/senior roles advertised to rescue companies from this situation, probably not very attractive from a prospective candidate’s point of view.</div><div><br></div><div>With entry-level roles disappearing, it’s hard to say how this skills gap will end up effecting the industry. I guess companies that are bullish on AI are hoping the tech will evolve enough before it becomes a more significant issue, and if not, they’ll still be enough people coming into the industry — who knows.</div><div><br></div><div>A few options, based on what you’ve said:</div><div><br></div><div><ul><li>Hope the Ruby market bounces back</li><li>Try switching stacks</li><li>Leverage AI to start your own business</li><li>Retrain — electricians and plumbers are raking it in 💷😄</li></ul><div><br></div><div><blockquote type="cite"><div>On 11 Feb 2026, at 11:10, Michael Pavling via Chat - chat at <a href="http://lists.lrug.org" target="_blank">lists.lrug.org</a> <<a href="mailto:chat_at_lists_lrug_org_sxxkmvwj@simplelogin.co" target="_blank">chat_at_lists_lrug_org_sxxkmvwj@simplelogin.co</a>> wrote:</div><br><div><div dir="auto">Well... The jobs market looks pretty bleak, doesn't it?<div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">There seems to be no entry-level roles now, and the mid/senior roles are few and far between, with hundreds of applicants scrabbling to stand out with their AI tuned CVs :-(</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">What's gonna be the case in a couple of years? (Or even at the end of this year)</div><div dir="auto">Is that it for Ruby jobs now? Is it the end for almost all tech stacks? 😬</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Do we all just need to re-align to be maintainers of the output?</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">*sigh* What's everyone's hope for a best outcome?</div></div>
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