I have heard this same logic numerous times through my career and its a bias void of evidence, a loud indication of low confidence.
People would lose their minds when they discovered I did not pray at the cult of jQuery and then later React and so forth. I didn't need them. I was more productive without them and still managed to produce applications that executed dramatically faster with substantially less code. AI tools fall into this same camp. What could they provide me that I cannot do better myself at this point in my career? That is a serious question, by the way.
AI tools might work well for you. I am not you. Affirming your bias with baseless assumptions void of evidence will not make you a better programmer. Real developers write their own original code and/or architecture plans. Real engineers measure things and live or die by those measurements.
AI is just another tool. It is not a skill and will not compensate for skills. Perhaps I will use AT later to write test automation because that is something that is very simple to validate and likewise something I really don't want to bother with.
"Real developers write their own original code and/or architecture plans."
Nice tired no true Scotsman argument. You literally sound like a stubborn boomer refusing to see the change. You sound ignorant, not wise.
I've created several multi-modal AI applications deployed in production; fully created through Codex and Claude code. SOC2 compliant and created in a month, not years.
You can be an old man, but you don't need to have an old man mentality.
You wouldn't hire someone who only knows how to use a typewriter in a world of computers. No big deal, right? "A computer is just 'another tool', why should I not be fine with my typewriter?"
Literally fucking blows my mind I'm even having this discussion on this website, with people who should know better.
Your frequent astonishment indicates you have not been writing code very long. I also suspect you also may have some combination of ADHD or ASD, which would explain both your necessary dependence on a tool for relevance as well as your hostile defensiveness. Either way, in the long run, you will have trouble sticking around because tools eventually get replaced.
If after 20 years you still have not figured out how this industry works, hope that tool evangelism will save your career, and cannot measure things you almost certainly have autism. If you are not already diagnosed I strongly recommend seeking an evaluation.
The reality of success in this industry has nothing to do with tools. Its all about KPIs (however your organization defines them), superior planning/communication skills, and leading people. The people that produce the most with the least maintenance overhead are the people most well rewarded. Simply just not getting fired is not a metric of success.
I literally won a corporate Innovation award last year at my company (that does $30B in revenue yearly) for some of the previous applications I put into production that I mentioned. Even got posted on LinkedIn where thousands of people liked it. I am also in a technical role that is not far removed from the C-Suite, reporting to a VP.
Your analysis couldn't be further from reality, except the ADHD part, lmao.
I have the industry figured out buddy, it's you who thought they did, but doesn't anymore.
People would lose their minds when they discovered I did not pray at the cult of jQuery and then later React and so forth. I didn't need them. I was more productive without them and still managed to produce applications that executed dramatically faster with substantially less code. AI tools fall into this same camp. What could they provide me that I cannot do better myself at this point in my career? That is a serious question, by the way.
AI tools might work well for you. I am not you. Affirming your bias with baseless assumptions void of evidence will not make you a better programmer. Real developers write their own original code and/or architecture plans. Real engineers measure things and live or die by those measurements.
AI is just another tool. It is not a skill and will not compensate for skills. Perhaps I will use AT later to write test automation because that is something that is very simple to validate and likewise something I really don't want to bother with.