Ruminations on a Software Engineer’s Place in a Post-AI World
In a world where AI writes all the code, our value as developers will hinge on something more human—creativity, emotion, and storytelling
After I posted about Vibe Coding as a New System of the World, I found myself dialing into this new future in a way that surprised me. I now believe that when AI writes all the code, the key is for us to reconnect with our less intellectual parts to bring the special sauce.
For me, Kanye nailed it with his verse:
“Got treasures in my mind but couldn’t open up my own vault
My childlike creativity, purity and honesty
Is honestly being crowded by these grown thoughts”
Kanye West – Power
It’s time to start thinking about ourselves more than just as developers. We can’t vibe code without a vibe, and if code has been our vibe, then where does that leave us?
AI Made Me Sick
My migraines have been getting worse. I’ve been getting that left-side weakness again. I’m learning to see this stuff as my body being a teacher… I didn’t listen to my subconscious properly, and now, here’s the stick.
Perhaps obscurely, I put that down to AI.
AI has half enthralled, half terrified me for a while now.
And I think it’s soon safe to say, it’s taken over the engineering part of what I do.
I’d love to think that this new wave of vibe coding will empower better ideas to rise to the top. It might. Probably though, it’s just going to force an evolution of capitalism. We’re going to see verticals of everything. Pet psychologists are going to have apps.
The rise of the Vibeware is giving me background panic attacks.
This existential shift raises a deeper question—are my ideas enough to help me transition into new meaningful work, and what does it mean to create in an AI-saturated world?
How Do You Define ‘Ideas’?
The Oxford Dictionary says ideas are “a thought or suggestion as to a possible course of action”.
I prefer my definition; of ideas as floating dust motes riding the waves of our collective subconscious, attracted to some minds by the subtle pull of the frequencies they’ve tuned their thoughts into. To me, they are a kind of collective heritage computed into packages that get pulled from our racial memories to mash up with our personal chaos engine evolutionary algorithms.
Maybe I’m wrong.
…but belief is a choice, and I believe ideas are graces that we prepare ourselves to harvest.
What has the average LLM AI prepared itself for? It’s not purely mechanical; it’s not got more than a ghost of our collective subconscious, but maybe the ghost in the shell can do some mad tricks.
When it’s feasible to output 8 or 8,000 fully formed 1-feature apps a day from a terminal; does it even need doing?
Let’s say that trend continues. Every frictional act a human has to deal with on a device is resolved or commoditized. What is the drive to produce new apps then? Won’t people just be in constant flux with the system, getting itself to prune or improve itself endlessly?
I tell myself we’re 3 years out from that place; mostly just so I can sleep at night.
But it’s coming. And app craft is going to need more than just good ideas to be a viable business.
So, for now, I say, yes, ideas + AI developers will fuel this next wave of vertical ramming in software.
But it’s going to need more than just ideas to be a software entrepreneur at all, after that. It’s going to need something a lot of us are less good at: emotion.
Emotion and Software Development
Like many others, I found engineering from a love of rationality. Crafting with logic, fed the Autistic part in me. It lets me use common sense logic to craft predictable outcomes.
Emotion was something to leave for therapy, maybe, and then, only when all other avoidance techniques have failed 😅.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not all mechanical, I think looking back at the software I’ve made, it’s succeeded most when I’ve freestyled it, followed some muse, and been more creative. I named my last company Zero-BS CRM on a whim; I had a gut feeling it would resonate with users who were tired of frilly SaaS software; and it worked.
But day-to-day code was where I lived; a world of logic.
Now, these AI models can fuzz around all manner of rough descriptions and fill in the gaps based on an intellectual knowledge of billions of past human design choices.
Some Things Can’t Be Solved By Thinking
We’re going to have to show up and do more than think of solutions.
We’re going to have to be storytellers, magicians, and imaginative beyond previously assumed limitations.
Great business people do this already; those big brands that have survived 5 boom-bust cycles sell dreams and perceptions as much as they sell shoes and cars.
Software is going to have to step up.
Your garden variety SaaS still looks like a bootstrap-skinned version of accounting software from 1999.
It’s not going to be enough.
To prepare, personally, I’m going to work on reconnecting with myself. That defense mechanism that I’ve had since I was a boy, to control and live in rationality, has served me well for a couple of decades, but it’s now my biggest limitation. I need to recover my play, and my freedom to experiment, explore, and explode stuff.
Maybe that’ll help the migraines, too.
To all of us who’ve enjoyed software engineering for these sunny growth years, I implore you, lean into the creative. Let’s make software as varied and opinionated as music or art. Let’s use the rapidly evolving vibeware tools to create new things, not recycle old UIs.
Diminishing Targets
If all this comes to pass, maybe it’ll go like this:
2025 – Vibe coding actually one-shots every time.
2026 – Everyone and their nan makes verticalised apps.
2027 – Software becomes mostly vibeware or generated on the fly and opinionated/story-led brands come out on top. The market falls out for everyone else.
2028 – The final drop-off for the majority of undiversified software engineers.
Or maybe it’ll happen faster.
It’s a hard pill to swallow.
I’d like to believe good ideas will be enough.
But I think it’s going to take heart, emotion, and stories.
And even then, we’re all going to have to find life after code.
A path Through the Storm
I hope the path favors you, and somehow, in this muddled-up time, we find ways to embrace the change and continue to make cool stuff.
At least, writing this post helped my anxiety; thanks for reading 😂
What’s my path through this storm? Writing a newsletter (profitswarm.ai) to share my story as I evolve with AI. By picking up writing, I hope to rejuvenate my storytelling skills and reconnect with my fuller self, beyond that well-trodden logic-code part.
I’ve also started a non-profit project to collect together stories of software engineers who’ve moved on to new careers or lifestyles. Please do submit your story if you’re a developer who’s evolving post-AI: LifeAfterCode.com
Here’s a closing question for you: The future of software won’t just belong to coders but to creators. What will you create when the logic is done for you?
