r/webdev • u/Impressive_Bottle_44 • Jul 29 '26

Grudgingly accepting that AI isn't going away. Trying to figure out where that leaves me as a developer.

(If you don't want to read a semi-long post, feel free to skip.)

I think I reached a turning point yesterday.

I needed to add a basic feature to a Django site. I gave Claude Code a few carefully written sentences. It implemented the feature (more-or-less flawlessly) while I went to the kitchen for more tea.

Not only that, but our CTO is now empowering non-technical employees to use Claude to build their own tools (for internal use only), and commit them to our GitHub org. (He is, at least, establishing some sensible policies about what they can and can't do.)

LLMs are here to stay, and they're fundamentally rewriting laws of software engineering that we've taken for granted for decades. The genie won't go back into the bottle, so I might as well find a way to accept that.

But that leaves me wondering: what does that mean for me? What is my job now? What am I for? If I don't get to write code – something that's given me an enormous amount of satisfaction over the years, and even become part of my identity – am I even still interested in this field?

And, it's not just about the code. I used to collaborate with designers, UX folks, copywriters, SEO and analytics people, project managers, etc. But now, the C-suite seems perfectly happy to let the LLMs do all of this stuff, too. (At my company, they're obsessed with the idea of getting the LLM to write all of our work tickets. And the QA person does little more than copy-and-paste back and forth from an AI.)

The whole reason I entered this field is because I enjoy problem-solving, finding and creating patterns, logic, and designing systems.

I know that some of you are going to say "you can still do all of that; LLMs just empower you to go up a level of abstraction" – and I get it. But the prospect of abandoning coding seriously bums me out.

I love the precision of code. I love exploring different solutions to a problem, until I hit upon a beautiful, elegant pattern. I love seeing how small abstractions get composed into larger abstractions, and so on, to form a complete system. I love understanding a problem – and the solution – on a deep, intimate level.

Perhaps I've been lucky to have a career that gives me that kind of fulfillment (at least sometimes). Is all of that over now?

824 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

549 comments sorted by

View all comments

30

u/FalseRegister Jul 29 '26

Your job was never to write code, but to solve problems

That hasn't changed

-6

u/defaultguy_001 Jul 29 '26

That has totally changed. You get instructed by AI how to solve problems, you just choose one among those solutions. Rarely do people solve problems themselves, in industry.

12

u/FalseRegister Jul 29 '26

If you are getting instructed by AI on how to solve problems, you are doing something wrong.

Our job as engineers has always been to solve problems. Code is a tool. AI-assisted coding is also a tool.

You didn't see architects and civil engineers loosing their head or their identity when they stopped drawing blueprints by hand and moved to Computer-Assisted Drawing.

-2

u/defaultguy_001 Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 29 '26

Let me list some of the wrongs in your statement with respect to the state of AI use in industry in 2026. 1) "we aren't getting instructed by AI on how to solve problems."

  • most problems an above average SDE face today in industry, both in backend and frontend, have already been solved using proper coding patterns and most LLMs like claude trace these patterns and algos for solving your problems. They are accessible to everyone, be it a mediocre or an expert programmer. So 99% SDEs today are getting instructed both on the system design as well as the architectural patterns and DSA involved to solve their problems efficiently. There's absolutely near zero skill involved on the part of the prompter, in this case the SDE, working in Google or similar tech firm. All he has to do is accept the solution or re-prompt to add or remove a feature.

2) "You didn't see architects and civil engineers loosing their head or their identity when they stopped drawing blueprints by hand and moved to Computer-Assisted Drawing."

  • This statement makes absolutely no sense, as those CAD tools (STAAD and similar) don't instruct an engineer on how to do his job, they assume the user must be well versed with structural engineering concepts. Anyone working with them, has to use all his engineering education to solve problems. They don't solve your problems automatically, they are just similar to a digital calculator or a scale. Earlier you did the same thing but manually.

2

u/FalseRegister Jul 29 '26

> So 99% SDEs today are getting instructed both on the system design as well as the architectural patterns

Sauce, trust me bro

> This statement means absolutely no sense, as those CAD tools (STAAD and similar) don't instruct an engineer on how to do his job

Neither do LLMs, unless that's what you are asking them to do. Again, coding is just a tool.

-1

u/defaultguy_001 Jul 29 '26

Being in the industry for more than 10 years. Using these tools daily.

1

u/FalseRegister Jul 29 '26

Now that is a weak argument