Over the years, I've learned that coding is not the ultimate goal. People who get rewarded the most are not doing coding at all but doing aRcHiTecTure and DeSigN dOcuMents. Or better, manage the ones who write code. Purely writing code is seen as an intermediary step into something "real" - the true profession of being a good ~bullshitter~ communicator in a corporate environment.
But I kept going. I could be the corporate worm at my day-to-day job - it pays well in the end - while messing with writing my own stuff and trying to build a business in my free time. But then, the final nail on the coffin came in - LLMs.
I thought I could avoid it, but it seems like every company just mandates It's because pRodUctiVity!!!!111 So at first I resisted, then I was hinted that if I won't catch up, my job could be at risk. The market is shit, I am an adult now so I have adult responsibilities, and changing jobs is no longer that easy. Plus, nobody guarantees that the next job won't jump on the AI bandwagon. So I swallowed the pill, and started to use, and embrace, AI, hoping, once again, to reuse my old pattern - be who they want me to be at work, and enjoy the "craft" in my free time.
But AI has sucked the joy of the craft even in my free time. If I don't use AI to build my own SaaS / business - then others will "get to market" faster. If I do, then I will create a slopware for which I don't care.
I started to imagine dropping it all and doing woodworking or something, while trying to slowly grind through my day-to-day job until AI will inevitably replace me (either by itself, or because of an influx of young people who are born into that world, will just become more capable than me).
And I no longer know what to do. My day-to-day job has an expiration date. It could be 5 years, it could be 15. I was hoping to build a tech business and escape the "rat race", but I am no longer able to find any motivation or desire to do so, as AI basically remove any barrier to entry. My decades of experience vanished basically overnight, and I am competing with everyone who has access to a Claude account. Or maybe I'm just a bad businessman. Anyway, I feel trapped. I no longer get enjoyment from a thing that was, and is, my identity that I have crafted almost 20 years.
So dear HN, what's next?
Great products are built on top of unique perspectives gained through a lifetime of individuation and a lot of time thinking and tinkering and trying. Unfortunately, even before LLMs, tech has been languishing in a lack of vision surrounding the "iterative mindset," where only velocity matters. But as they say: the electric light did not come from the continuous improvement of candles. I'd also note: there are many companies that failed because they went to market too early (I started one where this was the case!).
If all white collar work is dead, then we're all truly fucked, and if that's the case, why not invest your time into what you find beautiful? If that is software, what kind of software would align with your values?
(I ping pong between this perspective and yours also FWIW)
I can also tell you: I've seen a couple vibe coded codebases, and they are scary and unmaintainable. Your decades of experience is still valuable, don't let the non-technical idea people talk you out of your value.
Your company never hired you to “code”. They hired you to use your now 20 years worth of experience to either make more money than it costs to employ you or to save more money than it costs to employ you.
My advice is to “touch grass” get off of your computer and don’t make your job your identity. If you got hit by a bus tomorrow, your job would send “thoughts and prayers” to your family, have an open request for your replacement before your body got cold and only think of you when your name appears in a “gif blame”.
Turn off your computer - go to the gym, spend time with your family and friends and realize there is a life outside of computers.
Source: Professional developer for 30 years and before that 10 years as a hobbyist. I have never in the 30 years since I graduated from college written a line of code that I haven’t gotten paid for
I was a fitness instructor part time for the first 15 years as an adult and a runner, stop for 8 years to take care of my (step)sons and enjoy my marriage. With my children being grown, my wife and I travel and just hang out (I work remotely) and meet interesting people.
There is so much more to life than pecking at a computer.