I’ve been using computers all my life; in fact, I think I’ve been on a computer more than I’ve slept during my lifetime… I’m kidding, I like sleeping too much. That said, even though I’ve been tinkering here and there, I've never been a great programmer. I had several programming companies, but I sure wasn't the one doing the heavy programming. I’ve hacked devices, found the principles and procedures to bring together marvelous technologies, and then had my colleagues and employees do the integration part. Yes, I’ve done it, but that wasn’t really my job. My job was to think about the next best thing: the indestructible server infrastructure, the misunderstood client, the employee pay… yes, I was that jack-of-all-trades guy. But you know what most people forget? The saying is really "Jack of all trades, master of none." So yeah, my colleagues were the hands to my mind.
Since I sold one of my companies, I’ve been learning a lot about AI and mastering the art of planning, conceptualizing, but more importantly, understanding the intricacies of connecting processes and libraries to power-boost general AI capabilities. Let me tell you, this last bit of knowledge completely blows my mind. Is it good news for everyone? Probably not. Is it finally something that leverages what I’ve been doing in the past 20 years? It sure does. I basically can take my broad knowledge of techniques, protocols, processes, libraries, and others, and boost AI research time and token usage. Something that could’ve taken so much time going through so many people can now be done by myself in record time.
Yes, I know what you are probably thinking… “He’s vibe coding!” I mean, yeah, you could say so, but I know the code. I’ve been reading it for the past 20 years; I just don’t have to write it. I can direct the AI as I would have with my old coworkers, but better than that, even before implementing a thoughtful plan and every single security measure and performance check, I can quickly tinker and test out ideas.
I’ve seen many programmers weary about this whole new chapter in the world, but I think now more than ever is the greatest time to redefine the role of programmers. They are thinkers, creators, artists. And that last word, artists… that’s something AI is not… at least not right now. Instead of “vibe coding,” we need human input, real vision, and living experience to feed the AI's soulless hivemind.
More than ever, the legendary Apple 1997 ad campaign “Think Different” resonates in my head, thinking how we all speak to the same dozen trained AI LLMs, all based on the same human-created content. Yes, Artificial general intelligence (AGI) is supposedly at our doorstep, but that’ll still be a computer trying to improve upon billions of pieces of human-created content… that will still be soulless. AI is magnificent. I hope it’ll be the answer to mathematical conundrums, life-threatening diseases, and maybe answer the famous “Why are we here?”
I control AI like we should all do. AI Slop is problematic as it is the symptom of laziness on the part of the user; you still need to put in the work, just not the same as you used to. So let me rephrase this: “AI is redefining the way I work, not my work.”
Disclosure: This text was written by me but sent to an AI to make it more presentable as I suck at writing. You surely don’t want the draft!