Breathe.
Just breathe.
Yes, my bookmarks in the AI folder keep growing. Actually, the first ones can be removed? not because I've read them, but cause they're already deprecated.
From the "two weeks ago" ancient past.
I'm a developer.
Nowadays I'm attending meetings with a clear message:
We KNOW we're falling behind. You guys shouldn't be typing code by hand anymore. Product teams shouldn't be working use cases the way they used to. QA should be automating... something. no wait! Everything!
We do know we need to change something. We're still deciding what... and how.
And that is ok.
I'm not in denial of the change. Let's do it.
Just, remember: there's big money in making you feel this way. You, your boss, their boss, the CTO, and the CEO. And they're human. (Yes, CEOs are humans too.) They are not immune to the psychic attack.
There's big money in play, and big money is rolling a serious amount of psy damage (and not over one individual dev, this is an area attack).
They're human and they KNOW they need to move fast. The opportunity window!!! If the org doesn't catch the wave, someone else will!!!! Someone else gets that 10x productivity boost!!!!!!!
...And those?
Yep. They are feeling the same. You get it.
The thing is... nobody knows shit. That guy on Tech Twitter claiming they're already ahead? Well... I honestly don't know. Maybe? But I've been in tech enough to know that the loudest voice in the room is rarely the one who figured it out.
And most of them, they're running alone. Let's see how far that takes them.
The pressure is real. I'm not going to pretend it isn't.
what does pressure do to us, humans?
Let's go anthropologist here for a second, shall we?
There's a term interesting for this: tend and befriend. Shelley Taylor, researcher, coined it in the 00's.
Shelley Taylor, distinguished research professor of psychology in the UCLA College.
Her team found that under stress, our bodies don't just go fight-or-flight. We release oxytocin (an hormone) that literally pushes us to seek the group, to protect, to bond.
To be specific, her research actually found that this response is stronger in women (while men might default more to fight-or-flight) alone.
This post is not a feel-good quote. It's about biochemistry.
The body, under pressure, is screaming at you: don't run alone.
This hormone isn't restricted to women, so:
Group up. Protect the one next to you. Share what you know. This isnt idealism, that's how we made this far as humans.
Greek hoplites. Roman Legions. Spanish Tercio. they didn't win battles by being the fastest runners. They won by lifting their shield to cover the soldier next to them.
You protect me, I protect you. We move together, or we don't move at all.
Right now, the AI hype machine is rewarding lone wolves. The hot takes. The "I replaced my whole team" crowd.
Well, I'm not entering your game. Im not going to make it with a better prompt. My bet is on the Phalanx.
Before you doom-scroll another "you're falling behind",
Breathe.
You're not falling behind. You're human. And humans don't survive by running alone.
RAISE YOUR SHIELD SOLDIER
We'll figure this out. As a pack.
--
thanks for reading.
Top comments (3)
Manuel my friend, from your recent posts you sound "professionally depressed"; but hats off to you for having the courage to admit it!
I think most of us, if not all practising software engineers who care about their craft, are in the same boat.
I think the only way out is deep expertise across the full stack that one works with, so as to be able to scrutinise the bot's output. and constantly trying to do that is quite depressing and anxiety inducing to be honest. stacks are deep, life finite, kids grow up fast!
These are turbulent times…. even… unprecedent.
I’ve known deep loss closely in my personal life, and it has taught me how to hold complex emotions without breaking.
I still know to raise my shied 💪💪💪
Thanks nausaf
Having said that, I do like your "shield" idea.
I think teams should proactively institute a "brown bag sessions" culture where lunches are long and each one is a technical lecture or workshop where one team member is imparts their skill to others. This may be the best way we can protect each other and be part of cohesive high performing teams when AI write most if not all of the code.