Coding Agents killed my identity. How do you feel?

I have a CS degree and have been a SWE for 13 years but never really developed a love of coding or software in general, I just happened to learn it and be pretty good at it in 2008. But even I have lost a bit of my identity, having one of the few things I have done most days for a decade+ be commoditized is pretty brutal no matter how I feel about software. For the past few years I've been trying to see where the puck is going (I've been leaning towards moving into management) but at this point I'm just trying to hold on until I reach financial independence. I assume my viewpoint is probably square in the middle of most folks in my position.

I relate to this on a deep level. I have been writing software professionally for 18 years. Programming was the fun part of the job. Solving deep technical problems, digging through docs, etc. All that seems to be gone now. Unfortunately the business does not care about any of the above, all that matters is output. My job pays me for output therefore I have no choice but to embrace the Claude pandemic.

I wish I had better news, but really just want you to know you are not alone and I empathize with you. I do think there is a cost to pay when using AI to output all of the code. A deep mental model is impossible and this will have downstream impacts. I am hopeful this will settle into a happy middle ground where AI is used but not relied upon.

I mostly strongly identify with this. Been coding for ~35 years, if you count toy programs on a Spectrum. My world is being completely destroyed. And it's probably normal. I also don't understand TikTok, new Avengers, or queueing for bubble tea. That's why evolution invented death (and renewal).

One outlet in all this AI craze is finding creative use of it in mundane work. For example, recently I made SIMD-level optimizations for XLS parser that is used maybe 2 times per day. Before AI I could never waste a week or two on doing something silly like that.

I'm sure the "price reckoning" will come to us when VC will find out they didn't have infinite money, but for now we can have some level of fun even with AI.

Indeed. Vibe coding is making those of us in tech lose ourselves more and more.

We used to be obsessed with elegant design and would lose sleep over an optimization. Since vibe coding came along, those days are gone for good. As technologists, we typically feel anxious about losing control over our code. The speed of AI makes it nearly impossible for us to carefully review the code.

We know AI makes mistakes all the time, and our job has become that of an AI corrector.

People who never really had these feelings about coding will turn up to tell you that you are wrong to care or that it is childish or silly to care.

You are not wrong to have your feelings or to strongly identify your sense of self with your work; that is what we used to call “finding your vocation”.

I share your feelings and have been focusing my energy on learning local and open weights AI to work through it because it seems to be impossible to avoid it all entirely as a freelancer who needs to remain competitive, and a bit of righteous/ethics/sustainable process fire in my belly doesn’t hurt.

But focusing on how you feel first, and then hopefully thinking about other ways you can feel valuable, is not wrong.

You are not alone and I wish you the best.

Code generated with AI has no worth (i think), even if its a core piece of any system.

I think the architecture around systems is un-replaceable like what I do now, is I create specs and then asks the agents to cook exactly as the spec.

What's your AI workflow btw?