In the years since AI entered our industry, I, like most others, watched with healthy skepticism as exaggerated claims about what AI was capable of seemed idealistic at best. After all, many of us have lived through the prior claims of WYSIWYG editors and template generators rendering "developers obsolete."
When it was first released, the initial capabilities of AI were more gimmicky than anything else. Yet in the past couple of years, it has clearly made some major strides that would be foolish to ignore, but this post isn't about what makes AI impressive. Instead, I want to share some of my thoughts on an easily overlooked topic with AI: how to navigate the chaos without letting it turn you into a shell of your former self.
The current climate with AI
"I feel like AI is making me a worse engineer."
— A growing sentiment in tech
When I talk with other professionals about their thoughts on AI, the conversation has generally been a negative one. And to some extent, how could I blame them? Layoffs feel like they're happening on a regular interval, and leadership keeps making unreasonable demands on a workforce that's already scrambling to navigate the chaos of new AI tooling and techniques.
I wish I could tell you that everything is going to be alright. That in a couple of years the market will correct itself and people will see the error of their ways, but if I did that I'd be no different than the pundits claiming that mastering AI will give you abilities beyond your wildest dreams.
So, here are three perspectives that have been critical to keeping me grounded as I continue to navigate the AI ecosystem.
1. No one really has it figured out.
Despite the overly confident messaging that appears all over social media, it's critical to remember that there are still a lot of unknowns when it comes to AI. Even the ones who are pioneering the most powerful models are also testing things out to see what works and what doesn't.
When that FOMO creeps in and you feel like you're already so far behind everyone else, remember that everyone else is trying to figure this out too. Some people are just confident in sharing their opinions in a way that comes off as authoritative guidance, but the ecosystem changes so quickly it's unrealistic to take everything so seriously.
So, whenever you spend time figuring out what AI means for your workflow, remember to take your time to absorb and experiment with the tooling and ideas. You will almost certainly burn out if you try to keep up with the latest and "greatest."
2. Don't make AI a scapegoat.
When people are in pain, the first thing they often want to do is find something to blame. And even though many of us rationally know that AI is nothing more than circuit boards amounting to ones and zeroes, our tendency to anthropomorphize things makes it really easy to blame AI as though it was a "person" causing all this pain.
It's a mistake to blame AI for what is happening and believe that avoiding it somehow acts as some sort of counterweight to the damage that is happening. Even though people will claim AI is the reason for layoffs and other decisions, remember that AI itself is a technological advancement. Its impact depends on how people adopt, market, and use it.
3. Treat the AI as a way to expand your abilities rather than something you outsource things to.
While it's easy to treat AI as a subject matter expert who can also do your bidding, the unfortunate part is that this perspective often leads to a degradation in skill and critical thinking.
When you hit a bug or build a new feature and ask AI to help you solve it, do you:
- Ask AI to explain why it's making the decision it's making?
- Challenge AI to debate the trade-offs of various designs or architecture?
- Decide to pair program with AI instead to acquire more hands-on experience with the problem?
Or, do you merely accept the changes and "trust" that it knows better than you do?
The line is subtle and easy to ignore, but it makes all the difference between watching your value as an engineer diminish over time and growing at a rate you could not have realistically achieved on your own before.
Use AI to accelerate your learning and growth, not to skip it. If you own the process, you'll be the one that comes out ahead regardless of how things play out.
Closing thoughts
It is without a doubt that AI has changed the way we produce work. Though it is tempting to fret over the implications of AI in the future, it is more critical than ever to make the most of this present moment.
While the AI hype train would have you believe that you'll be left in the dust if you don't learn the latest [insert new technique or acronym that's often a rebrand of an existing technique], the ones who will actually come out ahead are the ones who refuse to take the path of least resistance.
If you want to come out the other side a better engineer, don't hand AI the curiosity and diligence that refine your craft. Dig deep and use it in a way that sharpens your abilities instead of dulling them.
