Really?

Because nearly each time I point out that software has been getting so bad that I legitimately can’t go more than 1 day without wild bugs in everyday software that was fine 6 years ago, I’m surrounded by 17 AI bros screeching about how “umm actually I’m way more productive and AI has found 6,500 issues in this code and that’s great!”

Yea what’s not great is when they use AI to “patch” the vulnerabilities.

You ever try to go back in basically any industry and figure out what the fuck the last person at a job site did?

Now imagine that, except instead of intuitively being able to figure some things out because human thought is at least a base to start from, you have no fucking clue what the AI was thinking.

AI is also a massive shortcut that tugs your dick anytime you use it.

Humans can’t be trusted to not optimize every little thing, and AI is taking advantage of that.

I genuinely pine for a time when it was hand coded and I’m tired of pretending this is better

I don’t think I’ll ever stop working on my own projects. Even if I leave the software industry otherwise.

I’ve just seen a draft PR with 60k lines added.

No, I’m not OK.

And I’ll definitely go: TL;DR , I refuse to take any responsibilities about this.

If your company sucked before this, it sucks 80x as much now.

I switched companies this year, and there’s a big difference between working for a company that is shrinking and one that is growing right now.

I was a developer and then manager for 16 years before I saw what the industry was becoming and left, almost a year ago now.

I used to be excited about the work I was doing, solving tough problems and working/managing great people.

Unfortunately, like every company, we had mass layoffs and AI tooling mandated.

My very last year there was me just depressed while trying to keep morale up for the team I was left with (which is almost impossible if you can’t support the company).

The good news is, after I left I’ve made a horizontal shift to starting my own Indie game company. Obviously that has tons of risks and it’s own problems, but it’s been a breath of fresh air to work how I want to work, with a hope I can build a company and run it how I want to (which is not forcing AI tooling down everyone’s throats).

I suspect I’m not the only engineer who’s left to set up their own business over the past year, on the premise they want to start something small, with a healthy culture that they can hire engineers into.

I appreciate it’s not much of a lifeline, but over time I reckon you’ll see a correction with smaller companies starting up, who do engineering right and can set disruptive cultures that draw all the exceptional and clever engineers to come work with them.

I gotta say, I’m pretty fucking far from OK.

I THINK im burned out but I might just be dying slowly of some mysterious illness.

I’d say tech workers in general are not doing okay. I quit my sysadmin job 3 years ago and have been desperately trying to switch careers.

Even in this day and age, when furniture is being mass-produced, there is still a niche for those who create furniture by hand, without the use of assembly lines and CNC.

The same goes for software development.

The downside is that you need to become the creative, the “ideas man” that can come up with that bespoke solution that AI can never truly provide. And you likely have to do it on your own, or if you are lucky, in a small company whose entire identity relies on bespoke solutions and high-quality, high-cost work.

The vast majority of software developers will never be able to make that jump, just like how hundreds of thousands of furniture-makers in the early 20th century, across North America, were also unable to make that jump. Those turning out bespoke furniture today represent an almost-unmeasurable rounding error compared to the same numbers of craftsman a century ago.

But they still exist. They can still make a living. And so can software developers with the right skills and attitudes.

When it comes to my actual core work and getting things done, I’m still content. Even with the pressure to “use AI”, it’s usefulness is limited enough in my specific niche that I actually still do most of it. There are a couple of more mainstream components that it did accelerate, but the core of my job it kind of just isn’t good at. I still have authority over it and how it is done, and I can keep it pretty solid.

However the phenonomenon of people telling me how I should be doing my work who know absolutely zero about my work is exhausting. Someone who has never written code or used any version control, even with AI for some reason is telling me I should stop using git because it isn’t AI friendly because he read some article and he thinks it sounds smart to say it. Someone telling me they vibed up a solution for something and sent it out to our customers and then I get stuck trying to repair the customer relationship when it is crap, and expectations are that I should be able to fix it real quick because “the AI did all the hard stuff already”. So much harder fixing slop from someone that vibed without knowing than starting from scratch, but no one believes it because it almost looks right and how far off can it really be of it looks that right?

Most days I avoid that and I do feel like it’s getting better as the novelty wears off and these people with no stake in things are getting bored of slopping up stuff they find out they don’t actually care about, so it is fine.

However, I would absolutely suggest not trying to get into this industry. It is an absolute shit show to onboard into now. I am so glad now that my kid had zero interest in this stuff, saved them a bunch of disappointment.

I’m fine with the work. I use AI to help make some bricks, but I still build and design the tower.

I feel like I really earn my paycheck by needing to interact with clueless people/managers.

I’m thinking about getting into cyber security, or maybe get an MFT and be a shrink. Idk. Job market kinda sucks