When I start to program as a teenager, and it became my job in my early twenties, I was happy over the moon. I never made it my career because of money or prestige, teenagers rarely care about how much things pay in real life.

Over the years, I've learned that coding is not the ultimate goal. People who get rewarded the most are not doing coding at all but doing aRcHiTecTure and DeSigN dOcuMents. Or better, manage the ones who write code. Purely writing code is seen as an intermediary step into something "real" - the true profession of being a good ~bullshitter~ communicator in a corporate environment.

But I kept going. I could be the corporate worm at my day-to-day job - it pays well in the end - while messing with writing my own stuff and trying to build a business in my free time. But then, the final nail on the coffin came in - LLMs.

I thought I could avoid it, but it seems like every company just mandates It's because pRodUctiVity!!!!111 So at first I resisted, then I was hinted that if I won't catch up, my job could be at risk. The market is shit, I am an adult now so I have adult responsibilities, and changing jobs is no longer that easy. Plus, nobody guarantees that the next job won't jump on the AI bandwagon. So I swallowed the pill, and started to use, and embrace, AI, hoping, once again, to reuse my old pattern - be who they want me to be at work, and enjoy the "craft" in my free time.

But AI has sucked the joy of the craft even in my free time. If I don't use AI to build my own SaaS / business - then others will "get to market" faster. If I do, then I will create a slopware for which I don't care.

I started to imagine dropping it all and doing woodworking or something, while trying to slowly grind through my day-to-day job until AI will inevitably replace me (either by itself, or because of an influx of young people who are born into that world, will just become more capable than me).

And I no longer know what to do. My day-to-day job has an expiration date. It could be 5 years, it could be 15. I was hoping to build a tech business and escape the "rat race", but I am no longer able to find any motivation or desire to do so, as AI basically remove any barrier to entry. My decades of experience vanished basically overnight, and I am competing with everyone who has access to a Claude account. Or maybe I'm just a bad businessman. Anyway, I feel trapped. I no longer get enjoyment from a thing that was, and is, my identity that I have crafted almost 20 years.

So dear HN, what's next?

> And I no longer know what to do. My day-to-day job has an expiration date. It could be 5 years, it could be 15.

If you can still hold for 5 years, you haven't burnt out, you just need a break.

I'm burnt out from software engineering and I have been working on an exit plan for the past year, still a couple months to go. I'd literally rather drive an Uber (being hyperbolic here) than write a single line of code on a regular SWE job. I still enjoy the art of programming computers, I just don't want to be a professional software engineer any more, and AI can ** my **. That's what burnout means.

Consider asking yourself what is something you want to exist, not what someone else wants/needs you to create. Completely different energy when you're solving your own problem.

I really don't think AI is undermining your competitiveness if you have a unique perspective that other people value. You don't have to build a product that drives a company to IPO, you can just build software that other people value and make yourself a sustainable income.

Great products are built on top of unique perspectives gained through a lifetime of individuation and a lot of time thinking and tinkering and trying. Unfortunately, even before LLMs, tech has been languishing in a lack of vision surrounding the "iterative mindset," where only velocity matters. But as they say: the electric light did not come from the continuous improvement of candles. I'd also note: there are many companies that failed because they went to market too early (I started one where this was the case!).

If all white collar work is dead, then we're all truly fucked, and if that's the case, why not invest your time into what you find beautiful? If that is software, what kind of software would align with your values?

(I ping pong between this perspective and yours also FWIW)

I can also tell you: I've seen a couple vibe coded codebases, and they are scary and unmaintainable. Your decades of experience is still valuable, don't let the non-technical idea people talk you out of your value.

>> But AI has sucked the joy of the craft even in my free time.

I agree, and you are not alone. Those who love the craft of programming are forced into a weird situation, and that's where AI sucks away soul.

Perspective and patience changes many things. Work on altering perception by taking workshops, classes, volunteering, reading, poetry, etc. Whatever as long as it's something you haven't experienced before.

Also, I think it's okay to work on your own projects without AI slop-coding. This is how we learn, by doing. There is still expertise to be gained.

Just stick. Get the paycheck, do the minimum. Learn to not give a fuck about companies. Im in the same position

Im in EU. For me there’s no fucking way I can get 100K/year in any other work except software engineering. So I wanna buy a house, I just need to stick a few more years to get there. Just smile, get they paycheck and go home. That’s my plan. I have learned to be more resilient. Lifes short but it’s not like I’m in jail or something like that

> If I don't use AI to build my own SaaS / business

This was going to burn you out no matter what, unless you got the business chops and the stamina to be in it for the long term.

My advise: stay at your job and ride this wave, don't try to go under it. To countrbalance, work on hobby projects that scratch an itch for you. Work at your own pace for fun, not for profit. The value you get out of it is satisfaction rather than money (which is what your day job is for).

Jump to the hardware side?

What do you do? You realize that neither you nor your family have gotten over your addictions to food and shelter and you exchange your labor for money so you can support your addiction.

Your company never hired you to “code”. They hired you to use your now 20 years worth of experience to either make more money than it costs to employ you or to save more money than it costs to employ you.

My advice is to “touch grass” get off of your computer and don’t make your job your identity. If you got hit by a bus tomorrow, your job would send “thoughts and prayers” to your family, have an open request for your replacement before your body got cold and only think of you when your name appears in a “gif blame”.

Turn off your computer - go to the gym, spend time with your family and friends and realize there is a life outside of computers.

Source: Professional developer for 30 years and before that 10 years as a hobbyist. I have never in the 30 years since I graduated from college written a line of code that I haven’t gotten paid for

I was a fitness instructor part time for the first 15 years as an adult and a runner, stop for 8 years to take care of my (step)sons and enjoy my marriage. With my children being grown, my wife and I travel and just hang out (I work remotely) and meet interesting people.

There is so much more to life than pecking at a computer.

find something else to do? not sure the value is in complaining