Software Engineering Feels Weird Now

I got into software engineering because I was always fascinated by getting computers to do stuff. It's been a dream to earn a living doing something I would do in my spare time.

When you work for somebody else, it's a law of nature that you are paid less than the value that you create, else the arrangement wouldn't last for very long.

It used to be the case that you would be paid $1,000 for producing $2,000 of value for a company, and that was OK because you enjoyed the intellectual challenge, the craft, and the security.

Since the advent of agentic coding, the arrangement is shifting. I observe in myself a marked increase in productivity, defined by an increase in the rate that I can produce favourable business outcomes, coupled with a simultaneous reduction in the joy of programming.

Today it's more like being paid $1,000 for $8,000 of value, and producing it in such a way that feels more like a chore than a hobby. AI-assisted engineers can produce dramatically more output, and the parts of the job that were intrinsically rewarding are the bits being replaced first.

I'm not having fun, and what used to seem fair doesn't seem fair any more.

I don't know what this means for me or for other software engineers. And I'm aware that complaining about this is rather tone deaf coming from somebody who has had an extraordinarily privileged career. Maybe I should just shut up and do my job; many people do not have the privilege of enjoying what they do to make ends meet.

But, I dunno, feels weird and new, and I'm going to have to figure out a way of navigating this all.