How do developers define their worth when code is written by AI?

Lately I’ve been in a few podcasts and interviews and one question came up almost every time:

What is left for developers to care about or define themselves with when all the code is written by AI?

Here is the quick answer: being a developer was never about writing code. Code is a tool to achieve the thing we really care about: solving problems. Every developer I know loves solving problems and when there aren’t any problems to solve, we invent them.

This is the reason why so many frameworks and libraries exist. We take a coding solution we built and make it generic so that it can deal with whatever problem that is thrown at it. And then we lose interest and start all over again.

Don’t get me wrong, writing code is great fun. Having witnessed and helped new languages and environments evolve and change from an OK concept to a platform almost every software solution relies on is also great. Squeezing the last bit of optimisation out of a script whilst keeping it understandable and maintainable is a great feeling. But the code is not the end goal. If we find a tool that does the job as well, we will use that.

Every great developer I know is open to change and eager to learn about new things to do and try out. Asking if the code is what defines us is a sign that people still do not take the role of programmer as a normal thing for humans to do. We’re not some freaks in the corner that nobody understands and that stand just outside of “normal” society.

We’re doing a job and we are honing our craft constantly and to find better ways to make computers help others simplify their lives. Creative people thrive doing the thing that makes them happy. Writers write although the web is 90% AI generated and algorithm optimised slop. Musicians play in their garage and then pubs with 10 people because they like making the music they do. Painters paint although a prompt could give you a seeminlgy perfect picture. People knit, sew and weave although there is already far too much fashion available to ever wear in a lifetime.

Developers use code as a tool to create. So when you ask me if I feel threatened by AI and agents I can safely say that I am not. These things can take the task and the typing and the releasing from me, but I still feel a lot of joy popping open the hood and looking at things the machines created knowing that I can read and understand it. I can take it apart and put it back together. I can make it do things that the machine didn’t think of. I can make it better. I can make it mine. And so can you.