Intro

I am still learning how to become a better engineer. This is a reflection for myself. The type of engineer I strive to be. I think this mindset matters. Always learning. Always growing.

What I Think About AI Replacing Software Engineers

AI does not replace software engineers. Not yet. Not entirely. We still need them. Just far less of them. Many engineers will be replaced. The ones who need to be told what to do and how to do it. Factory workers. Teams can be much smaller now. With the right people.

Software Engineering and Building Things

Building a product is a game of tradeoffs. Juggling priorities. Focusing on the right things at the right time. That is software engineering.

My Thoughts on Thriving in the New Era

I think of three things when I think of a good engineer. Someone I want to consistently be myself.

Communication. They communicate clearly. Easy to read. They share what they are working on. They share the right context when they need help. They take their time to ask proper questions. Little to no confusion.

Speed. They ship fast. They ship working and well tested things fast.

Ownership. They truly own their work. The journey and the outcome. Especially the outcome. They take full responsibility. External factors do not matter. Your users don't care.

Communication

They write in a way that is easy and simple to understand. You do not get confused reading what they write. A good message is compact. You understand it from start to finish. It is not a yap. They give you all the necessary information to grasp the problem and what they think.

Speed

They ship fast. With AI anyone can ship fast. That is only part of the story. Test your stuff. Ship things that work and feel good. Ship things that feel good from the user perspective. Before writing code. Think. Evaluate the tradeoffs. Pair with AI.

I find myself writing tests and building admin tools to narrow down the testing loop with the code I write using AI. Review the code AI writes. Make sure nothing is absurdly off. From my experience with Codex or Claude Code (5.4 / 4.6). If the plan is good. He one shots it.

Ownership

Take ownership of your work. Fix whatever does not work. Make sure the outcome is good. Getting something out in production does not mean done. Making sure it works. Making sure it does what users expect. Making sure users are actually using it. That is done. Go the extra mile. Make sure observability is in place. There is no resting because something is in production.

In the era of AI. A mistake I have made myself in the past. Offloading too much of my own thinking to AI. Use AI as an accelerator. But think for yourself. Question things. Understand the ins and outs of what you are working on. Whenever I offload too much of my thinking to AI. Work takes longer. The quality drops.