Just an Engineer

Just an Engineer

DHH announced he no longer writes code. Uncle Bob said he won't even read it.

I tried that years ago. I thought I would move entirely into management and leave the keyboard behind. It was a mistake. Within months, my thinking slowed down. I lost my edge, and it took painful effort to get it back.

Today, over 80% of the code at my company comes from AI. Pull requests move faster, but nobody treats code like a craft anymore. It is all about closing tickets quickly. An intern recently admitted to me: "Without AI and vibe coding, I wouldn't even know where to start."

Many engineers panic about this shift. I don't.

Typing syntax into a terminal was always just a temporary step. The real work is finding messy problems and fixing them at a reasonable cost.

One day, I will probably drop the word "software" from my title and just keep "Engineer". Someone who solves problems using AI, robotics, or whatever comes next.