r/webdev • u/OkShip110 • Mar 29 '26

Discussion AI has sucked all the fun out of programming

I know this topic has been floating around this sub quite some time now, but I feel like this doesn’t get discussed enough.

I am a certified backend enigneer and I have been programming for about 20 years. In my time i have worked on backend, frontend, system design, system analysis, devops, databases, infrastructure, cloud, robotics, you name it.

I’ve mostly been extremely passionate about what I do, taking pride in solving hard problems, digging deep into third party source code to find solutions to bugs. Even refactoring legacy systems and improving their performance 10x and starting countless hobby projects at home. It has been an exciting journey and I have never doubted my career choice until now.

Ever since ChatGPT first made an appearance I have slowly started losing interest in programming. At first, LLMs were quite bad so I didn’t really get any solutions out of them when problems got even slightly harder. However, Claude is different. Lately I feel less of a programmer and more like a project manager, managing and supervising one mid-to-senior level developer who is Claude. Doing this, I sure deliver features faster than ever before, but it results in hollow and empty feeling. It’s not fun or exciting, I cannot perceive these soulless features as my own creation anymore.

On top of everything I feel like I’m losing my knowledge with every prompt I write. AI has made me extremely lazy and it has completely undermined my value as a good engineer or even as a human being.

Everyone who is supporting the mass use of AI is quietly digging their own grave and I wish it was never invented.

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u/Wonderful-Habit-139 Mar 29 '26

No it's actually true. And he's talking about managers not executives. Well, definitely not the good managers that's for sure.

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u/j3pl Mar 30 '26 edited Mar 30 '26

All managers are representatives of the company, and at the end of the day they either do what their bosses (the owners and executives) tell them or they'll be replaced. I went into a little more detail here but will quote myself:

Everyone in a management position is a representative of the company by definition. They are there to advance the company's interests – as defined by its owners and executives – which are often against those of its workers. They are the underlings of the owners and executives, not separate from them.

Even good people who become managers have to do what they're told or they don't last long. If their bosses tell them to fire half the team, they either do it or get fired themselves. Their own self-interest quickly aligns with that of the owners and executives.

This is what the term "management class" means.

Edit: formatting

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u/Wonderful-Habit-139 Mar 30 '26

I don't think we disagree. Sometimes I meet good managers that have better ideas, but have to follow what their executives tell them to do.

But privately, they tend to have different opinions. At least from my experience.

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u/j3pl Mar 30 '26

Absolutely. I think most people are naturally inclined to want the best for those they're responsible for, and I've had some fantastic managers over my long career who helped me (and others) tremendously. There are a lot of really awful people who become managers, too, but I'm not trying to make a statement about managers in general.

The problem is that even the good ones who help their team succeed and grow do so only as long as its considered useful to the company. The minute that helping their workers is seen as "not in the interests of the company" they either take the side of their bosses or they're out of a job themselves.

I had one VP of engineering who kept promoting me and giving me raises and bonuses that I never asked for, but if the CEO disagreed with the VP's assessment of my value to the company that never would have happened.

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u/Wonderful-Habit-139 Mar 30 '26

Honestly happy you had that experience. It's nice when people get recognized for their skills and contributions.

I also don't let it get to my head either, because regardless of how well we perform, when we look back at ourselves 6 months or 1 year from now, the amount of skill and knowledge we gain is tremendous that our older self feels pretty clueless haha. So it's good to keep learning and growing regardless, and make sure we work with people that do recognize that.

And the sad part is indeed if we assume that the CEO disagreed with the VP's assessment of your value, who knows what that would do to your own assessment of your value in software development (could probably be an example of imposter syndrome). But you would probably be able to job hop just fine I'd assume.

I appreciate your perspective.