ChatGPT destroyed me as a software engineer

JM — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 10:01:40 +0000

I'm a senior software engineer with seven years of experience, and honestly, I feel like ChatGPT has fulminated my skills as an engineer. I started using it months ago for building basic function but now, it’s clear that my problem-solving abilities have declined rapidly in such a short time. I’ve simply become too lazy to engage deeply with my job.

I’m not worried in the sense that I still understand what’s happening in the code, but I’ve gone from being a software engineer to essentially a debugger. My days are now spent reviewing and fixing what I asked ChatGPT to generate. I have no idea if my colleagues are doing the same, I wouldn’t dare ask, but I do feel bad for juniors who won’t get the chance to develop their skills properly.

Beyond that, it has drained the excitement from the job. There’s no more dopamine rush from cracking a tough problem or designing a complex function that required pen, paper, and hours of effort to do something simple? Now, I just think about the big picture and let my virtual minions handle the rest. Before, we at least had to bother reading the documentation for the libraries we used. I wonder if we were just as stupid?

Is this evolution, or are we signing our own demise? Is this the end of second-order thinking and true critical problem-solving? Time will tell. For now, I feel more bored and unfulfilled than ever. Maybe I don’t actually want more freedom, maybe I just want to be meaningfully busy.

In the end, the goal was never just to reach the destination, it was to enjoy the path. If the journey becomes effortless, then what’s left to keep walking for?

DEV Community: JM

ChatGPT destroyed me as a software engineer