I’ve been a mid-level dev for six years. I survived the great framework wars, I’ve pulled all-nighters for botched deployments, and I’ve got enough "World's Okayest Coder" mugs to fill a cabinet. But lately, I don't feel like a developer anymore. I feel like a high-end babysitter for a really fast, really confident, and occasionally delusional AI.
If you’re wondering if AI is "taking" our jobs, the answer isn’t a simple yes or no. It’s more like it’s morphing the job into something I didn't exactly sign up for.
From "Flow State" to "Fix-it State"
Remember the "flow state"? That glorious three-hour window where you’re deep in the zone, solving a complex logic puzzle? Yeah, that’s basically dead.
Now, my day looks like this:
I ask the AI to generate a boilerplate for a new service.
It spits out 200 lines of code in four seconds.
The Catch: I then spend the next two hours hunting for the one halluncinated library or the weirdly inefficient nested loop it tucked away in line 142.
It’s efficient, sure, but it’s a different kind of tired. Instead of the satisfaction of building, I have the headache of auditing. I’m not the chef anymore; I’m the health inspector.
The "Prompt Engineer" Identity Crisis
My manager keeps talking about "velocity."
"Since we have the new AI suite, we should be shipping three times as many features, right?" That’s the trap. Management sees the code pouring out of the IDE and thinks we’re at 300% capacity. They don't see the mental tax of making sure that code doesn't create a massive security debt three months from now. I spend half my day tweaking "prompts" to get the AI to stop using deprecated APIs. If I wanted to spend my day arguing with something that doesn't listen, I'd move back in with my parents.
The Junior Dev Ghost Town
The thing that actually keeps me up at night? The junior devs. Or lack thereof. In 2026, firms aren't hiring nearly as many entry-level folks because "the AI can do the grunt work." But who am I supposed to mentor? Who is going to be the mid-level dev in three years? We’re essentially burning the bridge behind us, and I’m stuck in the middle, staring at a screen that’s doing the work of three juniors—poorly.
Survival Mode: What I’m Doing to Not Get Deleted
Look, I’m complaining, but I’m not quitting. To keep the lights on, I’ve had to change my "vibe":
Becoming a "Code Skeptic": I treat every line the AI suggests like it's trying to prank me.
Focusing on the "Why," Not the "How": The AI knows how to write a function, but it has no idea why the client wants it. I’ve started leaning way more into the business logic and user experience side.
Architect over Keyboard-Basher: I’m focusing on how the pieces fit together. AI is great at the bricks, but it's a terrible architect.
The Bottom Line
AI didn't walk into my office and take my chair. But it did change the locks. The job is faster, noisier, and a lot less about "coding" than it used to be. I’m still here, and the paycheck is still hitting the bank, but man... sometimes I just miss the days when a syntax error was my biggest problem.
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