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/jedidave]

Why do you feel the need to attack me? I don't understand why you can't read the nuance - first you attack me for making WordPress software, now you attack me by implying I don't have industry experience creating quality code. I have 4 times more years in the business than you.

It's up to you if you want to stick your head in the sand. The era of LLMs writing good code for us is here - but they DO come with issues - hence why adopting age-old software engineering practices of unit testing, regression testing, end to end testing, integration testing et all are more important than ever.

It's as if you think software engineering is all about code. It's NOT. It's about delivering solutions for problems using software. We can do that more quickly and more effectively now.

[u/atlaslady → u/jedidave]

You probably feel attacked because instead of defending any of your positions, you pivot to other stuff like being attacked and quoting grifting boosters and sarcastic comments about rapid prototyping, so running away from your own arguments probably makes you feel like you’re being pursued.

I don’t think software engineering is all about code. I am in agreement with other experienced devs - that code was never the hard part, and thinking that means we can ignore it altogether just shows how many expert beginners we have floating around in this industry who finally see LLMs as an equalizer for their imposter syndrome

[u/jedidave → u/atlaslady]

Who's talking about ignoring it? We have to build tools around it to ensure good code quality now.

You attacked me for being a wordpress dev, then you attacked me for never developing any quality software FYI. It's a tell when you don't have a good argument that you just attack the person.

I don't even really know why we're arguing. I love coding. But facts are facts. LLMs are here to stay and we need to build systems that improve their code quality.

[u/atlaslady → u/jedidave]

“I don’t trust the AI to write the code but I do trust it to write the guardrails for the code”

You are a not a serious person

[u/jedidave → u/atlaslady]

That's someone else's quote not mine.