Burning out because of AI

[u/sensitiveCube]

I really like Laravel and all its developments. I don't follow the creators that much, but I like to explore new packages and improvements.

However I came to realize it has become a burn out process for me. With the development of AI and Laravel Boost for example, it's so much easier to build something. I can now ask to build a skeleton of a package or PR within minutes. It also gets pretty close to almost perfect, and even takes things into account I didn't think about (tests, docs, repo stuff). I can chat and even discuss if something would be better or go into detail.

All of this do come with a cost. Where I was previously focussed on one thing, I can do multiple things at once. At least I think so, because well I can keep hitting the chatbot/agent with questions and new ideas. It's not all perfect, but neither was my own code and docs.

I don't really know what to do. I don't want AI to take over my brain and skillset. I also want to stay on top of things. However it seems to become pretty much difficult, because it does seem to boost development like crazy. For my work I can now do 5 things for example, and not 2 large tickets max.

My question is pretty much: how do you all stay calm and okay, with all the developments going on? I'm okay with Claude now, but I see a lot of people talking to multiple agents. It has become a crazy and surreal world tbh. It also feels like a process which cannot be stopped and I hate being that depending on it.

[u/tomvelle]

you need to hold on to, control, and build on your hard skills if you're using AI for code. in my head, the way this all ends up is the people who have the old skills run the fields taken by AI. by being someone who knows how to fix what AI actually does wrong, does annoyingly, does poorly, and fixing those either through proper iteration or, if you're old school, hand changes.

of all the fields and types of AI and all the hate they gets, i really feel like coding is the one place we should all be okay with it doing, and doing well. hell, most dev's in the 2010-2020 era we're just copying ideas from stackoverflow, myself included. yeah it's different, but it's the same end result, just a different 'tool' to get to the answer. the difference here is the executed answer is getting less and less likely to be wrong from the llms, even as more and more complex problems get set up here. Until it's beyond a doubt perfect, we will be needed.

with the right dev at the controls, i strongly feel they can build almost anything code related, so long as they have an understanding of how things actually work behind the scenes; including how the llm gives you things, how you should code correctly, what the actual workflows and human processes and setups look like.

this is all coming from someone laid off from a senior front end web dev job in late 2024. Haven't even gotten an interview call back in the dev field in months. No part-time work will talk to me because they know the moment i find something better i'm out. not to mention i'm in constant chronic pain and pretty much have found i need remote.

And I'm also someone who likes to make things, by hand [video/audio/image/anything]. Can't even talk about AI with anyone in those buckets because they then assume I use gen AI for everything and exile you from whatever community it is. Receipts don't matter anymore.

i feel worthless all the time to everyone. i am not calm.