Mourning the Craft: Reflections on AI and the Future of Programming

The last generation of hand-crafted code—and why the grief is real

The Uncomfortable Truth

“The worst fact about these tools is that they work.”

That’s the statement that cuts through all the debates about AI in programming. Not whether they should work, not whether we want them to work—just the bare fact that they do. And if you don’t believe it today, the argument goes, wait six months.

The Choice That Isn’t Really a Choice

You could abstain out of moral principle. That’s a valid path, especially if you’re near the end of your career and can ride out the transition. But for those in the middle—the 40-somethings with mortgages and families—the calculus is different.

“Eventually your boss will start asking why you’re getting paid twice your zoomer colleagues’ salary to produce a tenth of the code.”

This isn’t a prediction about some far-off future. It’s a pressure that’s building now, in real workplaces, with real consequences.

What We’re Losing

The grief isn’t about productivity metrics or job security. It’s about something more fundamental:

• The feel of code as clay – shaped by a master sculptor’s hands
• The 2 AM debugging victory – when the bug finally yields to the debugger
• The artist’s signature – the GitHub repo that says “I made this”
• The pride of creation – something true and right and good

These aren’t abstractions. They’re the experiences that drew many of us to programming in the first place.

The New Role

What remains when the execution is automated? The work shifts upstream:

Some will find this transition natural. Others will feel like they’ve been promoted out of the job they actually loved.

The Historical Pattern

We’ve been here before:
– The printer who mourned movable type
– The calculator who mourned the machine
– The typesetter who mourned desktop publishing

Each transition took something irreplaceable while giving something new. The people who lived through them weren’t wrong to grieve.

The Invitation

“If you would like to grieve, I invite you to grieve with me.”

There’s wisdom in acknowledging loss rather than rushing past it. The craft, as practiced for decades, is changing in ways that are fundamental. Those who follow won’t understand this sorrow because they’ll never know what came before.

What Persists

Not everything changes:
– Understanding problems still requires human insight
– Architectural decisions still need experienced judgment
– User needs still require empathy to understand
– Quality standards still need someone to define them

The hands may be different, but the mind and heart remain essential.

Technical Tags

#AI-Ethics #Developer-Experience #Future-of-Work #Programming-Culture #Automation #Career-Transitions #Craft

Key Reflections

1. Acknowledge the loss – Rushing to “but think of the productivity!” dismisses real grief
2. The choice is constrained – Not everyone has the luxury of abstention
3. Craft has intrinsic value – Beyond its output, beyond its efficiency
4. Transitions are bidirectional – Something is gained, something is lost
5. Community in grief – There’s value in mourning together

The sun rises, the sun sets. We orbit helplessly around it, moving but unmoved. And still we can mourn.