Everyone can code
With the power of a calculator, everyone can calculate easily. With the power of computers, everyone can do complex computing tasks. And now, with the power of AI, everyone can code through vibe coding. But with the calculator, it doesn’t mean you become a mathematician; with the computer, it doesn’t mean you are a computer scientist; with vibe coding, it doesn’t mean you are a software engineer.
But I can see, due to AI, there are blended roles between the team members. Everyone can code, everyone can do marketing, and everyone can do administrative tasks. Then you will probably ask, “Will I be replaced?” I think due to the economic situation, manpower shrinking is likely to happen. But each team member’s role can’t simply be replaced. The reason is simple: nobody can do everything.
As a software engineer, I am lucky that I come from an age without AI. This makes me have different experiences compared to young people that highly depend on AI today. Secondly, everyone is unique; each of us has his own hobby and interest. Everyone can code, but not everyone has the enthusiasm to learn to code. This makes the thing different. Your manager will not ask you to do marketing, though you can do it with AI. Why? Because there are people better than you to do marketing. So, it is the same. The marketing team will not be asked to do software development; they can do it with the help of AI, but they can’t do it as well as a person who comes from a software engineering or computer science background.
Hence, AI to generate the code today is just like a calculator in the past. It means coding becomes prevalent, but it doesn’t mean programmers are being replaced. However, a programmer, software developer, or software engineer must cope with the usage of AI and make himself master of the coding. That’s the talent, that’s the enthusiasm, which no one can easily replace.
As a conclusion, it is not what we can do that defines us, but what we love to do that defines us.
(Photo by Negative Space from StockSnap.io)