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Personally I always tried to be a software artisan doing highly detailed well done work, and I'm trying and will try to do the same with AI… A friend posted yesterday something like "you do you, but for me the product is better when you love your craft" and it bugged me because I *do* love my craft

I don't think artisans exclusively own the idea of doing good work. Rather, artisinal work is distinguished by being in some manner un-scalable. A bespoke suit is valuable both because it is tailor-made for the individual customer *and* because the buyer places value on work done by hand.

That's a valid choice, and there are valid businesses that work in that manner! But it's not the primary economic mode of software development, and in fact it's not clear to me you can make a software business that is "handmade" (and fetches premium or luxury prices to compensate).

As someone who’s job title technically has nothing to do with software, yet ends up writing a decent amount of code, AI has made me much more productive AND effective. Could not care less that I don’t have to type as many characters.

Basically I'm still thinking about this

Yes, I think it's possible to be a software artisan, just as I think it's possible to be a software artist, software punk, etc.; but it's not how professional software development works, and if your self-conception of your role is as an artisan inside an enterprise, you're going to have a bad time.

There was the whole "software craftmanship" movement that was big for a while. A literal manifestation of that artisanal quality which I really supported, btw, but yeah while it prompt improvements in software quality, code was always more like wiring or plumbing

wiring or plumbing (laudatory)

many such cases

one time in a meeting I said I was doing all the plumbing (laudatory) and everyone laughed at me 🫤 But then they all used the plumbing 😂