This article expresses some of my thoughts as a senior software engineer working as a consultant in an era of AI where agents is doing “all the work” and the job market is fluctuating, the world is in crisis and there is a lot of uncertainty and fear about what the future holds.
"I cannot not judge anything unless I know what it actually is"
I am a curious person. I have most my life spent the better part of it exploring new things - both things that intrigue me but also things I fear. My reasoning is that I cannot not judge anything unless I know what it actually is. This kind of curiosity can be a little dangerous too - but thankfully I am also pretty strong-willed so I have managed to get out from exploring things that might not be so good for me (addiction i.e.).
"there is a lot of fear going around now that AI will replace many tasks that currently humans do"
This is not one of those things though - but there are many fears involved with AI. For one, I grew up watching all the Terminator movies so I know that eventually they will come to life and kill me. Maybe not, but there is a lot of fear going around now that AI will replace many tasks that currently humans do. Another fear tied to AI, from one practicing it daily in my work, is that I will stop learning and become even less attractive to the job market since I am no longer acquiring knowledge - in a way they are both grounded in the same fear I guess.
This is my take on it, and please understand I am just starting out in my venture with AI and this is just me thinking out loud. I am actually not using AI to write this. Nor am I trying to earn clicks or subscriptions to any channel. I am however interested in hearing what other people in a similar situation is thinking about this.
"I am now not writing any code at all , I have become what the media calls a “prompt engineer”"
As I started saying I have a need to understand everything, especially if I am to express negative views on a subject. So, I have for the past 4 weeks dove deep into using AI in my professional life. I have been dabbling on and off with it over the past year and a half though - but not like this. I am now not writing any code at all , I have become what the media calls a “prompt engineer” - or if you want to put a negative spin on it a “vibe coder”.
"what is my worth now when I am using a tool to cover all the skills I have so proudly been bosting in my CV for the past 30 years"
With this I keep thinking along the lines of “what is my worth now when I am using a tool to cover all the skills I have so proudly been bosting in my CV for the past 30 years”. If I am letting a tool do all the work I used to do - writing good code, organizing it neatly, reading up on new tech, trying to learn how things work in order to teach others, planning infrastructure and thinking about performance and scalability - then why would someone pick me over someone else with the same tool? I mean, I feel that all my time I have spent studying and learning to become a great software engineer is sort of thrown out the window. Anyone can do it - no seriously, I truly believe anyone could literally do it.
"I am sort of an architect"
To this I don’t really have any comforting answer. AI today is not all there, it does mistakes, it lacks context and sometimes critical thinking and it needs a lot of guidance. This somewhat puts me at ease for the short term since this is where all my knowledge still come into play. I can steer the AI to make better choices where it is lacking. I can immediately spot overcomplicated code, I can imagine how this would be maintained and make sure that AI produces something that is easy to evolve and take over. I could tell it to write tests and not forget to lint the code. I am sort of an architect in a sense - telling it what I want out of it from a technical and maintainability point of view.
"I am allowing AI to take over, write all the code"
So, I still get to use some of the knowledge I have. But I think there is only a matter of time before AI understands these aspects too and truly will be able to produce code equally - if not better - than someone with 30 years of professional experience within software engineering. As a result of this, I am trying to evolve my thinking on this subject. I am letting go of what I have held so dear - my knowledge and experience. I am allowing AI to take over, write all the code and trying to figure out something that it could not replace. This is a bit scary indeed, and there is a lot of imposter syndrome floating around.
"I am actually enjoying this very much"
But I want to highlight something here. This is fun also. First of all I am still learning new things. And I get to be super creative to a level I have not been able to before. I mean, I have been able to write new features, both requested but also things that I just come up with in the moment, super fast and with a lot of freedom to explore. I can think of an idea, make AI implement it and then throw it away and do something else without feeling I am throwing away 2 days of CSS tinkering and coding. I can try out a new framework on a whim and see it in action instead of spending hours on researching it and sifting through flame war articles about which tech is better than the other’s. I am actually enjoying this very much and it makes it a lot easier to handle the imposter syndrome and still find value.
Actually, this is something I have long lacked in my professional career. To feel truly productive, daring and exploring possibilities. Not just being told what to do, maybe AI is enabling this for me, maybe this is a really a blessing and not a curse.
What do you think? Is AI just a passing thing, is our fears unfounded? Do you have any other interesting thoughts on the subject? Let me know please and have a wonderful day.
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