Developers are forced to use AI

Key Takeaways

Hey, what's going on guys? So, I'm working on my coding with AI course and over the past couple of months while working on this course and just using AI in general, uh, I've made some realizations and one of those realizations for me at least, I can't speak for everyone, is that AI has really taken some of the magic and the fun out of coding. Uh, and I would say especially for new developers. And some of you may disagree with this, but I have a feeling that, you know, 80 90% of you will feel the same way. So, let's talk about it. [music] So, I just want to mention our sponsor for this video, Tupil. So, Dennis, myself, and the rest of our team, we all live basically across the globe, and we're working on something pretty big that I know you guys will love. I can't share exactly what that is yet, but we needed to find a way to easily collaborate with each other. And we found this really cool tool called Tupil. It's a remote pair programming app that gives you high resolution screen sharing. So you can zoom in on tiny text even if the other person has a a massive screen. And with Tupal, you get shared remote controls. So at any point, one of us can take over the keyboard or the mouse and work on a codebase just like as if we were in the same room. And you also get awesome features like annotations which makes it much easier to collaborate. And one of my favorite features, app ve, which lets you share your screen confidently without the fear of uh, you know, a super personal or private message popping up on the screen uh, during a conversation. So, it's a really cool tool and it makes collaboration feel supernatural. So, be sure to give Tupal a try. All right. So, if you've been a developer for a while, at least 2 years or so, I'm sure that you can remember that first time that you created something. You probably remember your whatever hello world type project and then you probably remember your first real project that actually did something cool. Um whether that was uh an application or just a static website. You might have put it on a hosting platform and showed your friends and family and and it was yours. you know, you started with just an empty page in your IDE and you physically typed the code to create each part of that that application or that website and you you knew the entire codebase because you wrote it. And yes, you probably had some headaches running into bugs or maybe you couldn't get the CSS to do what you wanted it to, but when you finally did it, it felt like a real accomplishment. You know, you went you you went on a hunt and you fixed it. So a a good chunk of that feeling is now gone with AI. Now when I first started using AI heavily, I was using cursor and I actually felt the opposite of what I'm saying now. I felt cuz I was I was really burnt out. So I felt that spark come back and I even made a video about it. Um because now I could make things so much faster and my productivity went through the roof. Not only that, but I could create things that I couldn't before. So it gave me, you know, a spark of ambition and I was thinking about all the projects that I could launch. But as the months went on, I realized that a lot of the stuff that I was doing, it didn't give me that same feeling as when I was creating things from scratch on my own. And I think the main reason is because it's not my own. You know, nothing that you build with AI is 100% yours. there there are correct and incorrect ways to use AI you know correctly you can manage context create workflows use agents um which is much different and much better than vibe coding but you still don't write most of the code and I'm not saying that you don't understand it I mean a lot of people don't they they'll vibe code and just you know just create AI slop I'm trying to teach the right way to use AI in the course I'm working on but even still you don't really get that same reward. Now, you might say, "Well, just don't use it. No one's forcing you to to use AI. There's nothing stopping you from writing code like you did in 2015." Well, there is. The entire freaking industry, so many companies now and even small agencies are forcing their developers to use AI because they they they want productivity, right? What matters most to these companies is getting stuff pushed out. Even if having a senior dev manually write code would be cleaner and more maintainable in the long run, it's it's just too slow for the company. And you almost can't blame them because if they don't do it that way, then they fall behind because everyone else is doing it that way. So, it's really now it's it's quantity over quality. Unfortunately, before all this the the AI craze, there was only one way to create something cool. You actually had to build it from scratch. So, if you showed people um something you created, it was impressive. Now, even if you put your blood, sweat, and tears into a project that's mind-blowing that you created all yourself, someone else could just vibe code it. And everyone thinks you used AI anyway. So, uh I think it completely kills that joy that that we used to get. Um, now I I know everything I just said was really negative and I don't like to to sugarcoat things, but I'm going to switch it up a bit because I also can't stand the the doom and gloom YouTubers and and content creators that just tell you to like do something else. You know, if you love software development, don't go do something else. Adapt. Um, because this is going to happen in every industry. It's everything's going to change. So here's the the new frame of mind that I suggest. So up until recently, we've been the builders of our projects. And if you're a beginner, you should still only be the builder. Uh other than maybe autocomplete. However, if you're more experienced, you now want to look at yourself as the architect of your projects. You know, the vision, the structure, the decisions are they're they're all still yours. You're just no longer the brick layer. And if you don't know how to code and you're vibe coding, you're you're nothing. You're someone that pushes buttons. So that's why it's it's more vital now than ever to to actually learn how to code and don't just jump into using AI as a beginner. Um so you know, you can properly construct software architecture and you can still write code. You know, use AI for the the boring boilerplate [ __ ] and the scaffolding and and you work on the the soul of your product. And that way you can still keep up with everyone, but you still get that that I built this reward, you know, and maybe the shift the the joy shifts from I built this to I shipped this or I taught someone this or I saw I solved a problem. The the medium changed but the impact didn't. And I know I might have lost a few of you because you might like that doom and gloom stuff. U but that really gets you nowhere. You know, I'm 44 and and I [ __ ] miss the old days sometimes to an unhealthy extent. And I'm not just talking about tech and code. Uh I miss the '9s and the early 2000s more than you can imagine. You know, the music, the way people were, even the freaking smell of the air seems different now. But uh then I realized I can't just I can't go back and there's no sense in being miserable. So look at the good in the world now, you know, which for me is my family, my kids, you know, and I I know I'm getting a little off track here, but I'm just trying to add to the point of acceptance and adapting. You know, the people that I feel the most for are beginners because I mean, for those of you that have been around for a while, can you even imagine how confusing it must be learning to code now? You know, what how much AI should or shouldn't you use? Uh, that's why a big part of my plans looking into the future for this channel, for Traversy Media in general, courses and all that, is to try to help new developers navigate this world. But hopefully you guys got something from this. Hopefully it wasn't too negative for you. Uh, but like I said, I don't like to sugarcoat things. I also don't like to do all the doom and gloom [ __ ] So that's it and I will see you next