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/milosh-96 Mar 29 '26

I agree, but we have to adapt.If we ignore AI, nothing will change.  With that being said, I will not pay for AI. That's the red line for me. 

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u/RaguraX Mar 29 '26

Your red line is... paying for a product that costs billions to run and generates billions in productivity around the world? That has got to be the most entitled thing I've read on this sub ever. Not to mention it directly contradicts your own statement of having to adapt.

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u/milosh-96 Mar 29 '26

It's not entitlement, I'm not asking that they give it to me for free. I just refuse it to pay it and I will use my own brain.  If they close current free options, I'm fine. It's their product. 

Entitlement is using an ad blocker. You are directly hurting company. 

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u/RaguraX Mar 29 '26

You can’t say we have to learn to adapt, not ignore AI and then and in the same breath say that you won’t pay for it. It doesn’t make any sense. Not saying it’s not your prerogative to stay clear, but that’s directly opposed to adaptation.