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AI did not make great developers obsolete.
It made average execution cheap.
Anyone can now generate:
• A landing page
• A dashboard
• An API
• A mobile app
• 5,000 lines of code before lunch
But here is what AI still cannot decide for you:
- Should this feature exist and does it function well?
- Will a real customer understand it?
- Is the experience fast, trustworthy, and accessible?
- Can the system survive its first 10,000 users?
- Will another developer understand the code six months later?
The value of a developer is no longer measured by how quickly they can type code.
It is measured by the quality of the decisions they make before, during, and after the code is written.
AI can help you build almost anything.
Taste tells you what is worth building.
Engineering judgment makes sure it actually works.
The developers who win this decade will not compete against AI.
They will combine AI speed with the product thinking, creativity, and technical depth that AI cannot replace.
What is one skill you believe becomes MORE valuable as AI gets better?
#FullStackDevelopment #AI #CreativeAIFlow #WebDevelopment #ProductEngineering #BuildInPublic
I think engineering judgment becomes dramatically more valuable. AI can generate solutions quickly, but deciding which trade-offs are acceptable for performance, security, maintainability, and user experience is still a deeply human responsibility.
The network for creativity
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I was wrong about AI and development. Here's what changed my mind.
A year ago, if you'd told me AI would touch a meaningful chunk of my actual paid work, I'd have pushed back. I thought of it as a toy for writing boilerplate — useful, but nowhere near the real craft of building something pixel-accurate, something that actually holds up in production.
I don't think that anymore.
I ship landing pages in 1-2 days now that used to take a week. Not because I cut corners — because AI removes the boring 60% (debugging syntax, Googling the same CSS trick for the hundredth time, writing the same n8n node logic from scratch) so I can spend more time on the 40% that actually makes a project good: animation feel, structure that won't break in six months, thinking about what the client actually needs.
Here's the part that surprised me most: the developers who are getting replaced aren't losing to AI directly. They're losing to other developers who figured out how to use AI as leverage, faster than they did.
I used to think "using AI" meant admitting I couldn't do it myself. Now I think refusing to use it is the actual risk.
Still think craft matters more than ever — AI can't tell you what "feels right" for a client's brand, and it definitely can't build trust with a design studio on a call. But the tools changed. Pretending otherwise isn't purity, it's just slower.
What's something you changed your mind about this year?
The shift from seeing AI as boilerplate help to using it in paid work is a relatable arc. What was the first real project where it genuinely changed your mind?
I was wrong about AI and development. Here's what changed my mind.
A year ago, if you'd told me AI would touch a meaningful chunk of my actual paid work, I'd have pushed back. I thought of it as a toy for writing boilerplate — useful, but nowhere near the real craft of building something pixel-accurate, something that actually holds up in production.
I don't think that anymore.
I ship landing pages in 1-2 days now that used to take a week. Not because I cut corners — because AI removes the boring 60% (debugging syntax, Googling the same CSS trick for the hundredth time, writing the same n8n node logic from scratch) so I can spend more time on the 40% that actually makes a project good: animation feel, structure that won't break in six months, thinking about what the client actually needs.
Here's the part that surprised me most: the developers who are getting replaced aren't losing to AI directly. They're losing to other developers who figured out how to use AI as leverage, faster than they did.
I used to think "using AI" meant admitting I couldn't do it myself. Now I think refusing to use it is the actual risk.
Still think craft matters more than ever — AI can't tell you what "feels right" for a client's brand, and it definitely can't build trust with a design studio on a call. But the tools changed. Pretending otherwise isn't purity, it's just slower.
What's something you changed your mind about this year?
Will AI replace designers?
The short answer? Yes... but not in the way most people think.
When photography emerged in the 1800s, many believed painting would disappear. It didn't—it evolved.
When desktop publishing arrived in the 1980s, designers who embraced digital tools moved forward while others were left behind.
AI is another turning point.
I don't believe AI will replace creative work. I believe it will replace repetitive work—and expose those who refuse to evolve.
Ideas, taste, strategy and creative vision still come from people. AI is just a tool that amplifies them.
The future won't belong to designers who reject AI.
It will belong to designers who know how to use it better than everyone else.
What do you think? Will AI replace designers, or simply redefine what makes a great one?
The photography to painting parallel is such a good way to frame this. I think the designers who'll struggle most are the ones who saw their value as pure execution rather than judgment. What's the one skill you're doubling down on right now?
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