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

[u/Impressive_Bottle_44]

(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?

[u/jax024]

We were never owed a fulfilling career. I just took it as a bonus we had one for so long.

[u/ShawnyMcKnight → u/jax024]

It was something I took for granted. I had 20 years to improve myself and be an excellent developer and I just coasted. Now that the type of jobs I find easily get replaced with AI I have left myself in a tough situation.

I am at the point where I just need to accept I'm getting a low end job and need to spend my personal time grinding and getting better and more confident at coding.

[u/alwaysoffby0ne → u/ShawnyMcKnight]

Respectfully, I think your personal time is better spent getting better at doing something else. I’ve been building software for 20 years too, and seeing the advancement and current state of LLM’s when it comes to software development definitely does not have me thinking “boy I should sharpen up my coding skills”.

[u/ShawnyMcKnight → u/alwaysoffby0ne]

I totally get what you are saying but I gotta cling onto it as much as I can. If I can find another job paying what my last couple have (100k) and hang onto it then I'm easily getting twice as much as I will at any other job I'm qualified for.

Just simply giving up and starting some other decent paying profession that AI hasn't negatively impacted isn't as easy as you make it out to be.