I am not a Software Engineer
8 hours ago
- #software engineering philosophy
- #industry change
- #AI criticism
- The author has been told they are not a software engineer for 23 years, starting from early in their career when they were considered a 'good hacker.'
- They hold traditional software engineering beliefs: code should be readable, deterministic, efficient, and reproducible, and they value understanding, questioning, and dialog in development.
- Current industry trends focus on 'agentic paradigms' and using AI/LLMs for coding, which the author criticizes as non-deterministic and lacking in value, preferring hand-written, well-reasoned code.
- The author expresses skepticism about AI-driven workflows, tracking AI use for KPIs, and the push towards automation, arguing it leads to careless practices and co-opts human thought processes.
- They criticize AI development for being based on theft and exploitation, and industry leaders for promoting a future that devalues human intelligence and employment, feeling alienated from this vision.