Fragments: March 16
Annie Vella did some research into how 158 professional software engineers used AI, her first question was:
Are AI tools shifting where engineers actually spend their time and effort? Because if they are, they’re implicitly shifting what skills we practice and, ultimately, the definition of the role itself.
She found that participants saw a shift from creation-oriented tasks to...
The narrative presents a compelling case for the transformation of software engineering, framing AI as a tool that necessitates new skills rather than rendering engineers obsolete. The strongest version of this argument acknowledges the trauma of career uncertainty while offering a constructive path forward—supervisory engineering as a middle loop between creation and deployment. This steelman gives credit to the adaptability of the field and the potential for AI to elevate human work.
However, ...