It became rational in January 2025 to really think about the meaning of my work.
For almost 20 years I’ve been engineering software and selling it as an entrepreneur. AI will soon do a better job than me in some sense. What happens then?
I grew up amongst computers, building my own hardware and software, and for the past two decades, it has felt like I was part of an eternal growth machine. There were so many languages to master, and so much new hardware to leverage coming out all the time. It has been a beautiful rocket ship ride.
But now, it’s different. My craft is code. AI will be better at it, in many ways, in a matter of months.
In Neal Stephenson’s The System of the World, the characters are living through a time of radical change in England. It’s the early 1700’s and Isaac Newton is running the mint, and has designed a new system of money, (one that we still use every day). There’s a line which has stuck with me from it:
“It has been my view for some years that a new system of the world is being created around us. I used to suppose it would drive out and annihilate any older systems, things I’ve seen recently … have convinced me that new systems never replace old ones, but only surround and encapsulate them.”
Now, this is some of the best science fiction, but I believe it holds true IRL.
Some of us will still craft software with code.
Perhaps those of us who continue to will be akin to poets or comic artists. Through AI’s new abilities, the act of writing code by hand may be largely dislocated from its recent economic return.
What happened to libraries and bookshops when Google came along? It will be like that. An AI protocol might even shadow the web, offering a new protocol for humans to ping all day. A subsection of a bigger pot will be left for craft software. The majority will move to vibeware.
Vibeware (n.): A new category of software dev tools that prioritize creator experience and seamless creative flow. These tools integrate AI capabilities with intuitive, low-code or no-code interfaces, enabling developers to build applications through an organic, expressive process—increasingly referred to as vibe coding.
Source: Vibeware.io
Ego Death
I’ve had a few modest exits; I’ve worked at Automattic and sold software to some cool people. I’ve been lucky, and I acknowledge that I’ve benefited from some privilege and serendipity.
But despite reading philosophy and working on myself, I still feel the pangs of an imminent ego death.
My mum used to think I secretly worked for MI5 or GCHQ. I didn’t, but it tells you something about how society has seemed to reflect on me. Software entrepreneurship used to make some people think I was a wizard.
And I’m sure I’m not the only technologist here who didn’t grow their spending along with their salary bumps.
But the golden handcuffs are weighty, and we mustn’t let them drag us down if or when the currency flow stops. It is time for adaptation.
Pretty soon, AI is going to write the majority of the code. We must embrace the new system and start from wrongness. Sticking our heads in the sand now, as an industry so close to the change engine itself, is to end up hurting much more from the shock of the thing.
Buffalo walk towards storms because, evolutionarily, they’ve learned that in doing so, they get an easier ride.
With every passing of an old way, by default comes a new way.
So, it’s time for me to accept that even if I am the equivalent of a fine furniture maker (in software engineering), the nature of my craft has evolved. My wizard status and golden handcuffs are passing on.
Finding Positive Meaning in Software ‘Work’
Many of us have enjoyed the decades in the sun, the ship-fast culture of bleeding edge tech. Now, we enter a new era, we must choose new adventures.
For me, that started with a new newsletter (ProfitSwarm.ai), where I’m challenging myself to find a new definition of ‘software entrepreneur’ in a post-AI world. By walking into the storm, I hope to see the face of the new world as early as possible, and perhaps, in a small way, design my own part in the new system of the world.
I don’t think I have any other choice.
I’m a maker, fundamentally, and my craft has always been a hybrid of business and software. At times, I’ve thought of that in a capitalist sense, but looking back on it as a past journey, I see that it boils down to:
Making other humans’ lives better with technology.
My mind seems to be happiest when I am inventing solutions. I get a kick out of making tools that genuinely help.
With AI, there is potential several orders of magnitude greater.
But it does mean mostly letting software engineering go. It means embracing “vibeware”, dusting off my ideas spreadsheet, and for me, getting back to writing words, amongst other martech.
So here’s to new beginnings. Here’s to the rise of vibeware, which, even if we don’t love it as code poets, we can embrace as a general progression. Here’s to being able to express more ideas, better, and the bandwidth bump that’ll hopefully make us a more positively interconnected species.
I’m going to walk into the AI storm. I’m going to see what need there is for an ex-software entrepreneur in a post-AI world. I’m doing so at
What will you make of the new system of the world?
What will it make of you?
